Inquiry, Experimental Design & Graphing
A student measures a sample of baking soda using a digital balance and records "12.4 g" in their lab notebook.
What is a quantitative observation (or quantitative data)?
The state of matter where particles are tightly packed in a fixed grid and vibrate in
What is a solid?
The phase change that occurs when a liquid puddle loses thermal energy and transforms into ice.
What is freezing?
The basic structural unit of all matter, and the smallest piece that retains the identity of an element.
What is an atom?
A cook accidentally knocks a bag of salt into a bin of dry sand. To recover the salt, she stirs the mixture into warm water, filters out the sand, and boils away the liquid.
What is solubility?
A student sees steam rising from a flask and concludes, "A chemical reaction is taking place and generating heat."
What is an inference?
The term describing the total kinetic energy (energy of motion) of all particles within a substance.
What is thermal energy?
Any phase change, such as ice melting into water, where thermal energy is absorbed from the surroundings.
What is an endothermic process?
A pure substance, such as carbon dioxide (CO₂), made of two or more different types of atoms chemically combined.
What is a compound?
A student tests two clear liquids with a simple circuit containing a battery and a lightbulb. When wires are placed in Liquid A, the bulb lights up, but in Liquid B, the bulb stays dark.
What is electrical conductivity?
In a plant growth trial, keeping the pot size, soil type, and watering schedule identical across every plant tested.
What are control variables (or constants)?
As the temperature of a gas inside a sealed vessel increases, this happens to the speed and movement of its particles.
What is increasing speed / moving faster (gaining kinetic energy)?
The phase change that occurs when gaseous water vapor cools down on a cold window to form droplets.
What is condensation?
The total count of individual atoms present in one molecule of rust, Fe₂O₃.
What is 5 (2 Iron atoms + 3 Oxygen atoms)?
A farmer notices their crops are dying because the field has a pH of 4.2. To save the harvest, they spread crushed limestone (a basic substance) across the field to bring the value closer to 7.0.
What is pH (or acidity/neutralization)?
According to the DRY MIX acronym, the letter representing the variable that must always be plotted on the horizontal X-axis.
What is M (Manipulated / Independent Variable)?
The state of matter where particles are spaced far apart and move rapidly and freely to fill their container completely.
What is a gas?
During the process of liquid water evaporating into steam, thermal energy is doing this relative to the water molecules.
What is being absorbed?
Nitrogen gas (N₂) contains two bonded atoms, yet it is classified as an element rather than a compound for this reason.
What is because it consists of only ONE type of atom?
Lab technicians store ethanol and acetone inside a double-walled steel safety cabinet away from heat sources, while storing distilled water in plastic squeeze bottles on open shelves.
What is flammability?
The most appropriate graph type to display the percentage breakdown of nitrogen, oxygen, and argon that make up Earth's atmosphere.
What is a pie chart?
The state of matter where particles remain close together but have enough energy to slide and flow past one another.
What is a liquid?
Phase changes like freezing and condensation release energy into the surrounding environment, earning them this classification.
What is an exothermic process?
A student claims NO (Nitric Oxide) and No (Nobelium) are identical. The rule explaining why they are completely different substances.
What is capitalization matters (two uppercase letters indicate a compound, while one uppercase and one lowercase indicate a single element)?
An investigator trying to identify an unknown liquid finds that it dissolves sugar completely, turns blue litmus paper bright red, and fizzes vigorously when poured over eggshells.
What is an acid (or acidic pH)?