Week 27, Day 1: Hydrolysis of water and Gold Foil Simulation Lab

EVEN BLOCK SCHEDULE: Viewed Hydrogen Hopes Video, and Honors sceince did the Gold foil simulation lab,

Electrolysis device working slow but usuable.THe Platnum electrodes are waring out or my copper wires connecting it are corroded mostly through.

 I escaped to lunch with my wife and mother in law. It was nice to get away after 4 months of coaching during my lunches.
In honors class we did the Rutherford Gold foil lab simulation. This was the experiment that showed atoms have a positive dense nucleus. Did it outside on cement. The data was lousy. Perhaps the cement or maybe the distance ,25 ft, was too much. Lab took too long, more than a period. I thought we'd be done in a half an hour.  The kids are to roll marbles randomly, not aim, at some target marbles. Then we count hits and misses and use some statistical math to determine the size of the target molecules.  Usually we do better with calculating the % error. Usually its about 10%, today it was -56% error.  Yikes.

You can get the lab sheet from my web site.  E-mail me if you need.  richardkinney@cusd.com