How Can I Record My Copper Sulphate Experiment?

[Ziliba]

Hello!
I need a little help! At school we did an experiment. We took cooper sulphate (CuSO4.5H2O) and heated it.Then we tried to see whether there are five moles of water to each mole of cooper sulphate.
I am asked to "start with a brief statement of how the experiment allowed you to determine the value of n and the assumptions made".
Maybe, someone can explain me what do they need from me? I don't understand.
Thank you in advance!

 

[Borek]

At school we did an experiment. We took cooper sulphate (CuSO4.5H2O) and heated it.

Was it a full procedure, or were there operations that you have not listed?

 

[Ziliba]

Nope.
We took hydrated cooper sulphate,measured it, heated it, measured again, calculated the mass of water, turned everything in moles, saw the ratio.

 

[Ziliba]

Was it a full procedure, or were there operations that you have not listed?

Nope.
We took hydrated cooper sulphate,measured it, heated it, measured again, calculated the mass of water, turned everything in moles, saw the ratio.

 

[Borek]

By my book "measurement" qualifies as an operation that is part of the procedure, you have not listed it in your original post - just just said "we heated it".

So, what kind of a measurement it was? Length? Time?

 

[Ziliba]

By my book "measurement" qualifies as an operation that is part of the procedure, you have not listed it in your original post - just just said "we heated it".

So, what kind of a measurement it was? Length? Time?

Sorry! I'm not used to writing about such things(
We measured the mass of hydrated sulphate, then we measured the mass of dehydrated cooper sulphate.
m(H2O)=m(hydrated CuSO4) - m(dehydrated CuSO4)
then we converted m(H2O) and m(dehydrated CuSO4) into moles.
then we found the ratio n(CuSO4):n(H2O)

 

[Borek]

So you assumed mass lost was that of the water lost, and based on this assumption you found molar ratio of water to copper sulfate?

 

[Ziliba]

So you assumed mass lost was that of the water lost, and based on this assumption you found molar ratio of water to copper sulfate?

...Yes

 

[Borek]

And you still don't know what to write? ;)

 

[Ziliba]

And you still don't know what to write? ;)

The experiment above allowed me to determine the ratio between the cooper sulphate and the water by measuring the mass of cooper sulphate before and after heating (We assumed that the mass lost was that of the water lost).

 

[Ziliba]

I just... Chemistry here is so different than in my country oo)

 

[Borek]

Would be enough for me.

 

[Borek]

I just... Chemistry here is so different than in my country oo)

Chemistry is the same, teaching can be different.

 

[Ziliba]

Chemistry is the same, teaching can be different.

No! Half of the things which are considered to be very important here are not even mentioned in my country!

Anyway, thank you very much! I'm happy now:)