Sammi Tovar

12/2/11
Measuring the Width of a Molecule*

I. Purpose
The purpose of this lab is to find out how wide a molecule is. The result I hope to obtain is an extremely
small number, and this number will be found through a certain mathematical process.
II. Equipment
There were no changes to the equipment of the lab.
III. Procedure
The lab was followed properly.
IV. Data and Observations
Experiment: All the measurements went accordingly to the lab. The number of drops from my
eyedropper was 390. When you divide it by 10.0 you get the amount of mL in each drop of water. The
amount is 0.025. When I released the drop of diluted water I could see the circle and the measurement
was 12 centimeters.
Calculations:
First I need to multiply the volume by the density of the drop of water. 0.025*1.00= 0.025
To see how many grams of sodium stearate I added in the bowl I need to multiply 0.025*0.000125=
3.125*10-6.
I calculate the molecular mass of sodium stearate to be 296.3
I need to find out the how much moles of sodium stearate were inside the bowl, by using the factor
label method. 3.125*10-6/1 * 1 mole/296.3= 1.05*10-8
To find out how many molecules were in the circle I need to multiply that number by 6.02*10^23=
6.34*10^15
Next I have to find the radius of the circle by dividing the diameter by 2 = 6 3/8
Now I find the area of the circle A= nr^2 = 127.6
To find the width of the molecule I square it down and get 11^15

Sammi Tovar
12/2/11
Measuring the Width of a Molecule*

V. Conclusion
Analyzing the data of the experiment, my calculations were a bit off according to the book. I think that
the bubbles make it hard to calculate liquids. The thing I did was to calculate just the clear water and not
the bubbles. There was probably some mass left over in the bubbles. However if I would have measured
the bubbles I would have been measuring more air than liquid. In chemistry you need to pay attention
to details or the experiments will always have flaws.
There were no apparent errors in the experiment, but you definitely need to watch out for the bubbles
while calculating liquids.
Something I would like to do in the future is to color the water. Maybe when you drop the diluted water
in the bowl you see a reaction in the water.
The only problem I see in the lab is that pouring the water in such a tall beaker creates way too much
suds.
In the experiment I added dishwashing soap and diluted it in water. Diluting is making something
thinner or weaker by adding water.
The reason why I needed to calibrate the eyedropper was to find out the amount of mL in each drop.
The result was going to enable us to find the amount of water and sodium stearate that was dropped in
the bowl.
The purpose that the pepper served in the experiment was to serve bearing on the real calm water. So
the when the water was disturbed the pepper showed you how the water was disturbed.
The purpose of the sodium stearate is to land on the water and float making one big circle indicated by
the pepper. The chemical formula is NaC18H25O2.
The factor label method was used to convert the molecular mass of sodium stearate from grams to
moles.
Avogadros number is used in the experiment to find out how many molecules were in the sodium
stearate. 6.02*10^23
VI. Bibliography
Wile, Dr. Jay L., Exploring Creation with Chemistry 2nd Edition, pg. 149-151.