Procedure

1.  Set up the Bunsen burner and obtain a crucible. Make sure that the crucible is free of cracks, and any other defects.

2.  Record the mass of the crucible.

3.  Place the crucible and lid over the clay triangle over the Bunsen burner and gently light for 5 minutes then increase the flame and light it for 10-12 minutes, then let it cool.

4.  After cooling to room temperature, we recorded the mass of the crucible after the first heating and made sure that the masses were at least 10 mg apart from each other. If they are not then reheat the crucible again. For our experiment it took three heatings.

5.  It is important to heat the crucible to get rid of any impurities that were left before, which might interfere with your data.

6.  After the second heating we began the experiment by placing 0.192g of Magnesium in the crucible.

7.  We recorded the mass of the crucible, lid, and magnesium

8.  We placed the sample on the clay triangle over the Bunsen burner and began heating it.

9.  Let it heat for 5-7 minutes while checking the sample regularly.

10.  We let it burn until the magnesium changed into a pale color then we took the lid off and began breaking the crusts over the contents of the crucible with a straightened paperclip.

11.  It is important to bring all the un-reacted metal to the surface so that it will react when heated and thus give us more a more accurate reading of the mass.

12.  After letting it cool we recorded the mass.

13.  We repeated the heating and cooling process twice until we recorded masses that were within 10mg of each other.

14.  After recording there was no metal present we used the squeeze bottle and added three drops of deionized water.

15.  By wafting the air towards our nose we were able to smell and described the scent of ammonia.

16.  We placed the sample back on the clay triangle over the Bunsen burner and heated it to decompose Mg(OH)2 to MgO and H2O.

17.  This time we left the lid slightly opened so that the water vapor will escape and heat it for 3 minutes with a gentle flame, then we increased the flame and let the sample heat for 20 minutes.

18.  When the sample had a pale glow we stopped heating it and let it cool to room temperature, then we recorded the mass.

19.  We reheated the crucible for 5 minutes and recorded readings that were within 10mg of each other.

20.  Finally we recorded the last measurement of each chart in one master chart.