Dwayne’s Study Zombies

Time for more GED science! Hoho! Kewl! Zaher answered my science “POP” quiz question… Thanks, Zaher! I love gettin’ posts from people….was he right, tho? And more important….why or why not? (That’s the big GED science question!) Here’s the practice question from my last post…

POP-POP, FIZZ-FIZZ

I took a “POP” bottle, and into the bottom I put some vinegar and water. Then, I took an empty balloon and put some baking soda in it. I attached the balloon to the end of the bottle, and then poured the baking soda from the balloon into the bottle, so it mixed with the vinegar and water.

Pop-pop! Fizz-fizz! Millions of bubbles started to appear! And my balloon started to BLOW ITSELF UP!!! So, here’s your “POP” quiz…what made the balloon blow up?

A) The air inside the bottle was pushed out by the baking soda.

B) The baking soda and vinegar caused a chemical reaction that released gas, which blew up the balloon.

C) The baking soda and vinegar caused an explosion that created extra air, which blew up the balloon.

D) The air inside the bottle was pushed into the balloon by the bubbles created by combining baking soda and vinegar.

Zaher answered “C”…sorry! Try again! It’s kinda close, though….this answer says it caused an explosion…but nothing really exploded. It says the explosion “created extra air.” That’s a sign to me that C’s not the right answer…. because what is “air” exactly? Huh? Huh? Think about it! You probably know that air’s got oxygen in it, and maybe some other stuff. So it’s not just one thing. And you know that air can have water in it, like when it’s really humid, or it can be dry. Sometimes air is really polluted, and sometimes it’s cleaner. So, you know air isn’t always the same. That means…”air” is kinda vague. Well, scientists like to be SPECIFIC. So if scientists are talking about something being created…it’s prolly not going to be something vague like “air.”

Okay, okay. Now I’m gonna tell you, the right answer is B, that a chemical reaction created gas. It’s a lot like answer C, so Zaher was on the right track, totally. Except, instead of saying “air” it says “gas.” Okay, so isn’t gas vague? Well, there are different kinds of gasses, but a “gas” is GENERAL instead of VAGUE. Air isn’t general…air is the stuff around you that you breathe. What is that stuff? Well, that’s what’s vague. GAS is a science word, meaning stuff that’s a vapor…not solid, not a liquid, but a gas…floating around. Look for science words in the answers instead of looking for everyday sort of words!

The other thing that’s different is it says “chemical reaction” instead of “explosion”. I love explosions! They’re pretty kewl!!! And you can make an explosion with chemistry….in fact, you can get kicked out of school for that… then you need your GED, like me!!! Seriously, tho, it’s the same sort of thing. “Explosion” is more like an everyday word. It means something blows up… BOOM! What does “chemical reaction” mean? It just means that two things come together and form different things. The atoms rearrange and attach to different atoms… and you get something different. Chemical reactions happen in explosions…but you don’t always get an explosion when there’s a chemical reaction.

So what happens when baking soda and vinegar get together? Well, that’s some chemistry. In chemistry, everything’s about the MOLECULES that something is made of, and there’s like a code that explains what all the atoms in a molecule are. Each kind of atom has a letter name, and they use numbers to say how many molecules there are. So, vinegar is HC₂H₃O₂ … that’s 4 (1 + 3) hydrogens (H’s), 2 carbons (C’s), and 2 oxygens (O’s). And baking soda is NaHCO₃ … that’s 1 sodium (Na), 1 hydrogen (H), 1 carbon (C), and 3 oxygens (O’s). When they get together, because of the way they’re made, the different atoms start attaching to different things and rearranging themselves to make something new. That’s a chemical reaction! And here’s what happens…

HC₂H₃O₂ + NaHCO₃ ===> NaC₂H₃O₂ + H₂CO₃

There’s the same amount of atoms…and same kinds of atoms… on both sides. They’re just organized differently, so they make different stuff. NaC₂H₃O₂  is a kind of salt, and it also give you H₂CO₃, which is UNSTABLE!!! OH NO!!! KIND OF LIKE ME!!! YOU DON’T KNOW WHAT IT’LL DO!!!….

Well, actually, you do know what it’ll do. It does the same thing every time. It totally breaks up! I mean, literally! It breaks apart into two things…

H₂CO₃ ===> H₂O + CO₂

Good ol’  H₂O is water… and CO₂ is carbon dioxide. And guess what that is? It’s a GAS!!!! That’s back to the answer, right? The chemical reaction (all the atoms moving around and rearranging) make a GAS (carbon dioxide). That’s what fills up the balloon! Try it at home. Seriously! Try it! And there’s your GED science for today!!

For more information about the GED test and GED test preparation, visit The GED Academy at http://www.passGED.com.

This entry was posted on Monday, June 16th, 2008 at 3:29 pm and is filed under Chemistry, GED Practice Question.
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