Forensics C

personasaurus rex
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Re: Forensics C

Post by personasaurus rex »

jazzy009 wrote:
personasaurus rex wrote: the worst ones are like potassium chloride, because the color is a faint purple that 1) blends in with the bunsen burner blue and 2) it's so faint that I can never see it. Sometimes boric acid is pretty bad too because the green shows up not regularly.
I think you may need to be a little more patient with your flame tests; boric acid and potassium chloride are extremely distinguishable! Those, combined with lithium chloride, make for an easy test!

Also (reading earlier posts), all sodiums will burn orange. Not only that, but the sodium stains your loop (what fun!). So if you're getting a constant orange and can tell it's a sodium, you definitely need to clean your loop with acid before running another test with it.
Thank you so much!
and what "loop" are you talking about? o_O
2012: Forensics, Dynamic Planet, Sounds of Music, Water Quality, Write It Do It
austinfhs
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Re: Forensics C

Post by austinfhs »

personasaurus rex wrote:What "loop" are you talking about? o_O
It's the little wire thing that you use to hold the powder solutions to conduct flame tests.
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Re: Forensics C

Post by personasaurus rex »

austinfhs wrote:
personasaurus rex wrote:What "loop" are you talking about? o_O
It's the little wire thing that you use to hold the powder solutions to conduct flame tests.
oh wow whaaat? we just use wooden splints hahahhahahahaa... could that be affecting our results?
2012: Forensics, Dynamic Planet, Sounds of Music, Water Quality, Write It Do It
austinfhs
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Re: Forensics C

Post by austinfhs »

personasaurus rex wrote:oh wow whaaat? we just use wooden splints hahahhahahahaa... could that be affecting our results?
Seeing as the wood probably burns ... yes, although a pure metal loop still burns orange. However, your results should be much clearly using the loop because it will burn the powder more than the wood that you have been using.
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Re: Forensics C

Post by personasaurus rex »

austinfhs wrote:
personasaurus rex wrote:oh wow whaaat? we just use wooden splints hahahhahahahaa... could that be affecting our results?
Seeing as the wood probably burns ... yes, although a pure metal loop still burns orange. However, your results should be much clearly using the loop because it will burn the powder more than the wood that you have been using.
oh my... that would eliminate a lot of the problems we're having... thank you so much!! =]
2012: Forensics, Dynamic Planet, Sounds of Music, Water Quality, Write It Do It
austinfhs
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Re: Forensics C

Post by austinfhs »

On a side note, how many states do NOT receive bunsen burners to use for flame tests? I read around and saw that they are uncommon, and I'm afraid that if I get a candle or something I will be unable to replicate my flame tests for fibers and powders.
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Re: Forensics C

Post by personasaurus rex »

austinfhs wrote:On a side note, how many states do NOT receive bunsen burners to use for flame tests? I read around and saw that they are uncommon, and I'm afraid that if I get a candle or something I will be unable to replicate my flame tests for fibers and powders.
well on the rules sheet it says that the event supervisors have to provide a bunsen burner or something that can burn equally strongly to perform flame tests, so I'm not really sure why people don't get something to work with. But I'm pretty sure NY always gets Bunsen burners to work with.
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austinfhs
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Re: Forensics C

Post by austinfhs »

Alrighty then :) Norcal has always received Bunsen burners as well, but at states, we had a brand new lab to work with, so all of the gas lines were full of air and it took 25 minutes to get the gas flowing ... what a waste of time :(
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Re: Forensics C

Post by jazzy009 »

personasaurus rex wrote:
austinfhs wrote:
personasaurus rex wrote:What "loop" are you talking about? o_O
It's the little wire thing that you use to hold the powder solutions to conduct flame tests.
oh wow whaaat? we just use wooden splints hahahhahahahaa... could that be affecting our results?
Yes I recommend getting a nichrome loop for the flame tests, and more than one for reasons I have mentioned earlier. Also, I have never had to use anything other than a bunsen burner, but it doesn't hurt to do at least a little practice with a candle (no matter how painful that might be).
Call me coach.
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Re: Forensics C

Post by personasaurus rex »

jazzy009 wrote:Yes I recommend getting a nichrome loop for the flame tests, and more than one for reasons I have mentioned earlier. Also, I have never had to use anything other than a bunsen burner, but it doesn't hurt to do at least a little practice with a candle (no matter how painful that might be).
are candle flames even hot enough for flame tests? candles seem to burn even less intensely than matches do...
2012: Forensics, Dynamic Planet, Sounds of Music, Water Quality, Write It Do It
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