More Challenging Questions These questions require more thought and integrate several c...

More Challenging Questions

These questions require more thought and integrate several concepts.

In their home laboratory, two students do an experiment (a rather dangerous one—don’t try it without proper safety precautions!) with drain cleaner (Drano, a solid) and toilet bowl cleaner (The Works, a liquid solution). The students measure 1 teaspoon (tsp) of Drano into each of four Styrofoam coffee cups and dissolve the solid in half a cup of water. Then they wash their hands and go have lunch. When they return, they measure the temperature of the solution in each of the four cups and find it to be 22.3 °C. Next they measure into separate small empty cups 1, 2, 3, and 4 tablespoons (Tbsp) of The Works. In each cup they add enough water to make the total volume 4 Tbsp. After a few minutes they measure the temperature of each cup and find it to be 22.3 °C. Finally the two students take each cup of The Works, pour it into a cup of Drano solution, and measure the temperature over a period of a few minutes. Their results are reported in the table below.

Discuss these results and interpret them in terms of the thermochemistry and stoichiometry of the reaction. Is the reaction exothermic or endothermic? Why is more energy transferred in some cases than others? For each experiment, which reactant, Drano or The Works, is limiting? Why are the final temperatures nearly the same in experiments 3 and 4? What can you conclude about the stoichiometric ratio between the two reactants?