Abstract
The purpose of conducting this “Foul Water Lab” is to identify impure water and continue to purify it through filtering methods. The Atoms, my lab group, had a successful time conducting this experiment and also enjoyed it. By the end of this experiment were supposed have water pure enough to wash your hands with. I believe we did make pure enough water to wash our hands with. Although some extra steps were added and some steps needed to be altered, the finished product was as expected, pure. This Lab was a fun way to learn about both labs and water and I recommend it.
Procedure
This lab requires multiple steps and leaves little room for error. My group took the following steps:
Obtain a beaker with 100 mL of some Foul water. Let the sample sit for about 1 minute and once the minute has passed use a pipet to take the top layer of the foul water because it may contain oil. Because oil will always separate from water, we must take the top layer of the foul water in order to purify the water well. Once the top layer has been removed and set in a test tube we added a few drops of distilled water to see if they separated. We confirmed the separation, which confirmed the oil was existent! For the next step of filtration we took a Styrofoam cup and poked holes with a paper clip and filled the cup with 1cm of gravel, 2 cm of sand, and another 1cm of gravel. When we poured our foul water sample through this filtering system the sand was too fine and came into the second beaker. We needed to add another filtering step by taking a coffee filter and pouring the foul water through a funnel into another beaker. This step got rid of the sand from the previous step and probably helped the filtering process further. For the next step we used the charcoal that black and little pebbles. They did not completely adsorb the grime, and the step did not work. We decanted the foul water from the charcoal and used a different type of charcoal that was more of a powder. With a few swirls the Foul water turned black and after going through the funnel with a coffee filter it was clear! The Product looked clear but we could not be sure that it was pure. See the Post-Lab Activities to view the next steps.
Data Analysis
1. 54%-percent recovery
2. 46 mL were lost
3. 46% was lost
4. My first histogram…the picture is backwards, but you get the idea!
5. 70% was the largest percent recovery obtained by a group in my class. 54% was smallest percent recovery obtained. The range of percents obtained is 16%.
6. 64.5% is the average percent recovery
7. 65.5% is the median percent recovery
Post Lab Activities
After we got our purified, or seemingly purified, water from the previous three filtration systems, we still needed to see if the water had some remaining salt. When the light bulb with two conductors sticking out of it touched our water, the light bulb lit. This indicated there was salt still in the water because salt is an electricity conductor. After finding there was salt in the water we put it in the distillation train. The salt water was at the bottom of the train and was boiled at 99.1 degrees F so that the water would evaporate and leave the salt behind. The water would be water vapor at this point and go through the chamber with distilled water, which would condense it, and would in result have pure water. This water is now ready to be used to wash your hands with. Dr. Forman got rid of the water that never evaporated because it was mostly salt and not pure water. We also could test to see if our water was pure by using the Tyndall Effect. This is effect is demonstrated when a light is shone into a glass of water. If the water is pure the light will not be visible within the water. If the water is impure the light will shine in the water and be visible. Our water sample was originally impure, but after distillation was pure and did not show the light.
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