Advanced Higher Chemistry 2011-2012 :: Resources and Discussion Thread

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hey. Im doing AH chemistry this year. Anyone got any good investigation ideas?

Umm not that I can think of, although one thing I wouldn't recommend is wine analysis. I did it and it was quite dull, as well as being quite a popular one.

Reply 41

Hype en Ecosse

So what's everyone going to do for their investigation then? I'm either going to do an aspirin determination of all different brands, a sort of comparative analysis and see how it compares with how much aspirin they say is in it. Which has the lowest concentration of aspirin, highest concentration, etc.
My other idea is to try to find something really colourful to do, just think it'd be quite a fun thing to do, probably involving transition metals, if I could make stuff go to various colours while doing it. :tongue:

Reply 42

username458263

Original post by Hype en Ecosse

I'm doing analysis of red and white wines, for ethanol content, acidity, and (if I have time) sulphur dioxide content. Pretty standard, which suits me since chemistry is definitely my third subject this year. I don't want it to suck up too much time that I could be using for maths work :L

Going up in a free period tomorrow afternoon to get started by making up some ethanol solutions of known concentration so I can plot a density curve and eventually use that to find the concentration of ethanol in the wine. :biggrin:

Reply 43

Mechie

Original post by derangedyoshi

Oh God, you're doing what I did, except I was comparing white Chardonnays from different countries. The ethanol one takes ages, because you've got to make up so many solutions. How many solutions are you making up? I did 0-20% in 1% increment, which, in hindsight is too much. I also did acidity, volatile and fixed, so if you want any help with that then that's fine :smile:

I was going to do sulphur dioxide content, but I didn't have time because of the 2 weeks of school missed due to the snow.

I didn't really like the investigation, but I don't think it's a bad one to do. Feel free to ask me any questions about it :smile:

Reply 44

username458263

Original post by davidmarsh01

0-20% in 1% increments?! :L I'm not sure how many I'm doing exactly but I don't think that many. I'm hoping I'll like it. It seems a bit more interesting than the vitamin C one at least, and it's got plenty of support because it's reasonably common.

Thanks for the offer to ask questions - I may at some point :smile:

Reply 45

Hype en Ecosse

Starting my investigation on Tuesday. :smile:

Reply 46

alysunshine

I want to kill myself...

On a positive note, I passed my NAB alright :biggrin:

...
...but this investigation just makes me scream! I've also got to do one for AH Biology and I honestly seem to have some sort of mental block. -.-

Reply 47

Hype en Ecosse

Original post by alysunshine

I want to kill myself...

On a positive note, I passed my NAB alright :biggrin:

...
...but this investigation just makes me scream! I've also got to do one for AH Biology and I honestly seem to have some sort of mental block. -.-

Don't worry, I have no clue what to do for Biology either.

Reply 48

SutaaFox

Its okay i'm in the same situation i have no idea what to do my project in AH chem or AH bio either hopefully today or tomorrow i will have some idea of what to do for thr biology :smile:

Reply 49

Mechie

Original post by derangedyoshi

How are you getting on with it?

Reply 50

judzi

Just finished our 3rd week of in class investigation time and I think I'm almost done. I'm doing tests for ethanol content in wine. Once I got past the first few periods of figuring out why things weren't working right, it's been pretty straight forward

Reply 51

username458263

Original post by davidmarsh01

How are you getting on with it?

Reasonably slowly :P we don't get any class time to do it until later in the year (after prelims I think) so I've just had a few free periods to make up ethanol solutions and do the preparatory work for the density curve. I imagine I'll get that done in the next week or two :smile:

Reply 52

Mechie

Original post by derangedyoshi

Oh that's good. I did some of it in my frees with a friend who was doing another investigation who had the same frees as me and it was quite fun :smile:

I was given a copy of someone else's investigation who did something similar, so that helped with the method etc, as well as being able to ask the teacher for help. I'm sure you'll be fine! What ethanol solutions are you making up?

Reply 53

username458263

Original post by davidmarsh01

Oh that's good. I did some of it in my frees with a friend who was doing another investigation who had the same frees as me and it was quite fun :smile:

Yeah - I'm trying to go up when my teacher has frees, and fortunately she has a good few the same as me, so she's usually available to help. I've made up 0-100% in 20% intervals, at my teacher's recommendation... if that turns out not to be accurate enough I can always make up more and put it in the investigation as something I adjusted, apparently they like that sort of thing... :P

Reply 54

Mechie

Original post by derangedyoshi

My teacher had frees the same time as me as well (I only had classes 16/30 periods a week though :tongue:

) so I did that as well. 0-100%? I only did mine up to 20%, in 1% increments, because that's the sort of range the wine will be in. If your teacher told you to do 0-100% then obviously it will be fine, but that's just something to think about. Yes, definitely try to put something about adjusting your procedure. Looking back, I should've done more of that, but it's done now :smile:

Reply 55

username458263

Original post by davidmarsh01

My teacher had frees the same time as me as well (I only had classes 16/30 periods a week though :tongue:

oh right, okay. well I can always adjust it. I'm going to try and do the wine next week so we'll see what happens. I also need to do the background chemistry for next week... fun :P

Reply 56

Babb_zz

Im trying to look for a Investigation to do at the moment, I want to do something that involves organic chemistry however i dont know where to start :/

Reply 57

aroy45

Just an idea, my mate in 6th year last year analysed the amount of some iron compound in irn bru and it got the best marks in the central belt? Just an idea :P

Reply 58

SutaaFox

Original post by derangedyoshi

oh right, okay. well I can always adjust it. I'm going to try and do the wine next week so we'll see what happens. I also need to do the background chemistry for next week... fun :P

This seems like a really interesting idea(we've not even started our projects yet or even know what were doing..so i'm trying to bank up on good ideas) and i was wondering if you could possibly give me a summary of what you actually do for this one if possible :tongue:

Reply 59

roar558

Sigh I remember AH chemistry, I did caffeine extraction from various types of coffee. It was interesting but very time consuming.