Introduction
An Irish rogue named Paddy Proportionovich had recently left Ireland under questionable circumstances and fled to the Amazon jungle in South America. While in a remote area of the Amazon, Paddy heard of a lost pool of gold and decided to go in search of it. After several months, he stumbled out of the jungle, stood at the edge of a village, swaying, and said, “I found it!” He then died.
A chemical engineering company obtained the samples that paddy had brought out of the jungle and a map that he had drawn. Satellite surveys have confirmed that there is a round pool on top of a volcano exactly where Paddy’s map indicated. The satellite survey further determined that the pool’s dimensions were 0.209 miles in diameter with a uniform depth of 35.3 meters. The company had determined that they will need to spend 3.4 billion dollars in recovering the gold from the remote pool on top of the volcano.
The company has requested your expertise in determining whether or not they will make a profit in the extracting the gold from the pool.
Materials
- 50 mL (approximate) sample of gold mixture from pool.
- Any necessary lab equipment
Procedure
- Write a detailed plan (a procedure for my mother to follow) to determine the amount of gold in the pool in your data book.
- Include a list of equipment that you want to use to carry out your experiment(s). Include a reason for requesting each piece of equipment. Have it and your procedure checked by Mr. Borden.
- Obtain your sample from Mr. Borden and conduct your experiment.
- Record your results.
- Based on the data you have obtained, determine if the company will make a profit by recovering the gold from the pool. Include this in your conclusion.
- Present your procedure and conclusion in your lab data book in a formal manner according to the given guidelines.
Lab report should include the following:
Title
Purpose
Materials
Procedure
Data
Calculations
Conclusion/Error Analysis
The Conclusion -
This is the section where you tie everything together. Use the examples on the bottom of this page.
Summary
(This is where you demonstrate your understanding of the procedures and your ability to analyze the results of your experiment correctly. You should correctly interpret and summarize all observations, data, and calculations included in the lab. Cite data and calculations using specific examples to justify and support your conclusions. The conclusions should be linked directly to the objectives and/or questions stated in the purpose of the lab. A good conclusion should be several paragraphs and demonstrate a thorough understanding of the experimental results and their implications. Be honest about the limitations of your experiment and your confidence in your conclusions. For student-designed experiments, analyze your experimental design and offer suggestions for improvement, when appropriate.)
The conclusion should be written out in paragraph form and should include the following parts. Use the italicized words as guides to begin your statements.
1. The purpose of this experiment was to ... (Check your purpose)
2. Our procedure was to ... (What did you do in the lab? Be very brief)
3. My hypothesis was ...
4. The data does/does not support my hypothesis. My experiment showed that ...(your results here) (Use data from your experiment to explain whey or why not your hypothesis was proven or not)
5. An explanation for our results might be ... (Use concepts covered in class)
6. Factors that affect our results are ... (What is the error? What kind of error - random or systematic? What affect does this error have on your data? Keep in mind you may have more that one error but NO "could of's" or "should of's")
7. Our results could be improved if we ... (Suggestions for improvement on the lab [better equipment is not a valid suggestion], how could you take this experiment further, what would you like to investigate more?).