Gas Volume? Please Help?!!!?

Question

So I am supposed to write an experimental procedure for determining the volume of gas generated when 6 grams of a TUMS antacid table is added to 30mLs of 1M acetic acid. Apparently the method of measuring gas volume by water displacement with a buret will not work for this experiment because the experiment may generate too much gas. I am then supposed to indicate what needs to be known exactly. Any idea what this means? Thanks.

Answer 1

You can simply use a larger container, preferably with graduations, such as a large graduated cylinder. Submerge in a tray of water and invert (keeping the opening below the surface so the water stays in the inverted graduate; secure it so it doesn't fall over and run the tubing from your experiment up into the water- filled graduated cylinder. Note: CO2 is slightly soluble in water, so depending on how accurate of an answer you you might need to correct for this, or use water that is already saturated with CO2 (but not supersaturated) so it won't absorb any more.

The things that must be known exactly, presumably what must be known to correctly carry out the experiment; such as weight of TUMS, volume of CO2 produced, temperature and pressure of the CO2 in the container. The vapor pressure of water at the temperature the CO2 is being collected at, that the quantity of acid is sufficient to totally react all the TUMS and that the 1M acetic acid reacts substantially the same as stomach acid.

Answer 2

Try putting the TUMS in a balloon, the acetic acid in a soda bottle. You can scrush out all the air from the balloon, and it doesn't matter what the volume of air is that's already in the bottle. The new gass will be in the balloon.

Squish out all the air from the balloon, and hang onto the Tums while you stretch the mouth of the balloon over the mouth of the bottle. Then, tip up the balloon to drop the Tums into the vinegar, and the balloon will expand and capture the gas. When done, you can use water displacement to measure balloon volume.

Of course, due to the easy compressibility of gas, one could argue that the balloon will compress the gas a bit, and not give the best reading of gas volume at normal atmospheric pressure. That might be subject for a 2nd experiment.