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  Home > JCE Print > Journal of Chemical Education > Issues > 2006  > August  >
In the Classroom
JCE DigiDemos: Tested Demonstrations
Two "Gas-in-a-Bag" Reactions To Show the Predictive Power of the Relative Acid–Base Strength Chart
Brett Criswell
Central Columbia High School, Bloomsburg, PA 17815

checked by:

Carole Bennett
Sickles High School, Tampa, FL 33626

Holly M. Bevsek
Department of Chemistry, Susquehanna University, Selinsgrove, PA 17870

Cover
August 2006
Vol. 83 No. 8
p. 1167
Abstract
High-school chemistry curricula have often been maligned for being too long on theory and too short on applied chemistry. Certainly, very little consideration is given in most curricula to the rich arena of descriptive chemistry, particularly helping students develop the skills of being able to predict products of chemical reactions and of using resource tables to reason which products are most likely to form. This article describes a relatively simple demonstration in which two different pairs of solid chemicals are mixed in two different Ziploc bags in the presence of a small quantities of water. In both cases, the chemicals react to produce gases that are trapped in and fill up the bags. Students are informed that the reactions producing those gases are Brønsted–Lowry acid–base type reactions. Given that all four chemicals have the potential to be amphoteric, students must determine which member in each pair will act as the acid and which as the base. Making this determination—and therefore the determination of the products—requires students to apply an understanding of the Relative Acid–Base Strength chart.
More Information
*  Citation
 Criswell, Brett. J. Chem. Educ. 2006 83 1167.
*  Keywords
 Acids / Bases; Aqueous Solution Chemistry; Bronsted-Lowry Acids / Bases; Demonstrations; Descriptive Chemistry; First-Year Undergraduate / General; High School / Introductory Chemistry; Inquiry-Based / Discovery Learning
*  History
 Created:
Last Updated:		 6/21/2006
6/27/2006
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