The final retouch/ The final day!

Today the Alchemist finally finished the fine labreports. All of them. All! Now it is time for christmas break! 

Merry Christmas! 

/ The Alchemist

The finishing of the labrapports/ Day 10

Sadly enough, your time with the Alchemists is drawing to its close, with only a day left of the project period. Today we've been finalizing the physics report, putting the finishing touches on the report from the "Laser chamber" which included everything from dimkammaren to UV lamps. Where the alcohol lab is concerned, we're very well on our way to finishing it (despite a little miscalculation with the energy required to break one of the bonds mentioned). 

Toodles,

The Alchemists

The writing of the second lab report/Day 9

The Alchemist met a nine o'clock tuesday morning and started to work on the second lab report, which was actually quite hard. After lunch we did not work quite as hard...

However, at last we worked most things out, as chemists have solutions!

We have also indications that Linda is trying to destroy our blog, out of pure jealousy...

The second Kemilabb/ Day 8

Oscar and Charlotta met at ten o'clock to write the physics lab report. Joakim came late because of a doctors appointment at ten, but at last The Alchemists were complete again. Until lunch we worked hard on the lab reports. 

After lunch we started the final chemistry lab: "Comparing the Enthalpy of combustion of various alcohols". We measured the temperature changes in water heated by burning alcohols, and measured the mass burned. 

Not combustion as in cellular respiration, but as burning. Burning! However, here is someone who knows what alcohol is made for:

The second visit to the Great Hall of Science / Day 7

Tjenna ööööh lr ngt,

Friday was our second visit to Vetenskapens Hus and this time the focus was energy; potential, kinetic and the law of conservation of energy. The day begun with an experiment using a plastic ball which was shot out of a complicated machine with a spring. The initial speed of the ball was measured with photogates, and the maximum height was measured on a measuring tape. The ball was weighted and its initial kinetic energy was calculated and compared to the maximum potential energy. We found that some energy was lost by the aerodynamic resistance.

Then we moved on to the awesome lasercave, where we looked at lasers, uv-light, mirrors and alfa- beta- and gammaemissions in a fog chamber.

The last thing was learning about solar power, fuel cells, steam engines and the sterling motor. We also had a race between the different kinds of engines, the steam engine was the most fun :-D!

See you when we see you,
The Alchemists

Working on labreports / Day 5 + 6

Hello all of our fans,

yesterday as well as today we have been working on our physics lab report from Vetenskapens hus. We have also started working on the Born-Haber theoretical lab, it's very interesting! "Excel is hard" says Joakim whilst pondering upon the difficult task lying before us. Help has been received from our trustworthy chemistry textbook. A slight moment of panic occurred when we thought our whole physics report had been deleted, but with our great technological skills, we were able to recover the document. (*)

* = We found it saved on the desktop.

Peace out homies!

The Alchemists

Vetenskapens hus / Day 4

After a very slow morning the group finally assembled at vetenskapens hus (Charlotta was 5 minutes late...) We begun to conduct an experiment where the aim was to measure the speed of light. Here are some pics of the experimental apparatus which was used through measuring the time it took for the light to bounce of a mirror and back. We did three tries and then we were done. Also here is a picture of the high tech über technology used ; )


After we finished the supervisor showed us the biggest telescope in Sweden as well as an instrument that was the first instrument in Sweden to measure the radiation of the Tjernobyl catastrophy. Anyway we got to experiment with different coloured lights and optics which would lead to , for the first time on alchemists blog, the JOKE OF THE DAY!! Hooray... "Come on lets focus" you get it? Right..

At the end of the visit we got to conduct electronically based scientific experiments of the change of color (another word for coloring). Here is a picture of the extraordinary pixels of one of the pictures:

So that was the end of our day at vetenskapens hus.

Goodbye for now,
Alchemists


P.S. Props to Björn for bringing "fikabröd".

Björn Palvalls lesson/ Day 2 + Day 3

What is going on!? Everyone is having seizures, headaches and dehydration. Is it nuclear war? No, it turns out it is "just" physics with Björn. A lesson supposed to be an hour and a half was prolonged by first 20 minutes, then another 20 minutes, and at last, at four o'clock the lesson ended. Two and a half hours of monologue about things we already knew from math class. 

On another note, the project is going just fine. We just finished writing our lab report on the latent heat of fusion of ice and are beginning to write our personal conclusions. 

XOXO,

The Alchemists

The Lecture with Hans von Uthman/ Day 2 

Today the vice president of Vattenfall, Hans von Uthman, came and spoke to us about energy and the need for radical reform in the global energy and environmentally correlated sector:
 * Percentages of energy from fossile-, nuclear-, water- and windpower
 * Potential energy sources
 * The importance of the EU as a role model for the implementation of renewable energy sources
 * Potential energy savings; electric cars etc.
 * Development of the nordic countries vs development of EU and the world
 * Emission trading and its potential positive affects on a global market
 * The NIMBY effect (Not In My BackYard) of windpower

When comparing yesterday's lab with today's lecture, we begun to reflect upon the energy situation and the melting of ice due to global warming caused by carbon dioxide emissions. 

Cheers
The Alchemists of VRG

Lab 1/ Day 1: Determining the Latent Heat of fusion of ice

Yesterday was the first day of the project period and posed as the initiation of our cooperation. The lab revolved around determining the Latent Heat of fusion of ice, which included taking measurements of the temperature of ice placed in lukewarm water, prior to and after melting. Through finding out the change in temperature, we could deduce the energy transfer from the hot water to the ice and by further calculations involving the mass of the ice determine the latent heat of fusion of ice (the energy required to melt a gram of ice). We got a value quite close to the one stated as the scientifically accepted value, 3.144% lower. The lab went well, although the first two runs were test runs were merely used to warm-up to the instruments and general procedure. 

We developed a very successful way of cooperation, where Joakim focused more on the theoretical and computing side of the lab while Oscar and Charlotta focused more on the practical aspects, giving Joakim values.   

Over and Out,

The Alchemists of VRG