Blog Reflection; Week of 9/15/13

Blog Reflection by Raymond Zhao hour 1
     In the past week, we dived deeper into stiochiometry. This included doing stoichiometry with limiting reactants and calculating the yield. Also, Empirical Formulas was taught. Stoichiometry with limiting reactants was calculated by doing the conversion from the limiting reactant to the final product. Since that reactant was the one limiting, the result for that one is taken. Also, for questions that the limiting reactant is not given, you need to calculate the final mass of the product for all reactants. Then, the  reactant that resulted in the lowest mass of the product would be the limiting reactant. Stoichiometry 3 through Stiochiometry 7 all greatly helped my understanding of limiting reactants. Stiochiometry 8 taught the yield of of reactions. This meant finding doing the actual yield divided by the theoretical yield. It is important the the yield in % is not above 100. Empirical Formulas, taught by Empirical Formulas 1 sheet, was the the simplest ratio among the elements of a compound. It is found by first making all the percentages into grams by making  the total mass 100g. Then with the mass, convert it into moles and divide the moles by the smallest amount. With the numbers that result, use them as the coefficients for the ratio. 
     All these ideas all use stoichiometry. They require conversions from mass to moles or moles to mass. They are all very similar but just a little bit different. However, I found that I understood the concepts very well because I had a good knowledge of stoichiometry. The earlier stoichiometry lectures and activities all greatly help me come to a understanding of the ideas this week because it established a good base for it. Thus, I rate the difficulty regarding last week about a 7/10. This is because it was challenging, but not such much that it can't be learned. I still wonder why that the yield is always supposed to be lower than 100%. I only know that its supposed to be, not why so much. I think it might be because that the reactants all don't fully react. Since that this my only question from last week, I'd say that my understanding is 9.5/10.
     Likewise, my participation was a good 9.5/10 too. I asked question and actively learned. Because of my good participation, my understanding was good. 
     I feel fairly confident in my math capabilities for doing stoichiometry calculations  But, I still need to work on memorizing to slow down while doing my calculations because I sometimes make silly mistakes. For example, I didn't use significant digits once by accident. The concepts taught in last week have made me feel more confident about stoichiometry. I now know the concepts a lot more clearly and I know how to calculate equations with limiting reactants.  Also, I need to remember to always write down units, no matter if its the answer or during calculations. This should help greatly for fixing silly errors.
    Overall, the past week has been great. I learned a lot, including: stoichiometry with limiting reactants, stoichiometry with yield, and empirical formulas. Activities such as worksheets and white boarding greatly helped my understanding and development. I loved the time with groups to work together because it allowed interaction with each other. I feel like this helped me the most. I hope next week is just as great!

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