Blog post #2

     During this past week, we've mostly been focusing on stoichiometry. We also spent a little time learning about empirical formulas. Our main focus however, was definitely stoichiometry. We went over basic stoich problems through various worksheets and also learned some new concepts such as yield. Another new concept we learned about concerning stoichiometry was how to find limiting and excess reactants. Empirical formulas are important because they represent the lowest common ratio. We learned about Empirical formulas in this lecture: Empirical formulas lecture. All three of these ideas go virtually hand in hand. Yield and limiting reactants are very important for finding the accurate real world results of a reaction instead of just the theoretical results. Stoichiometry is also the key behind setting up the ratios in order  to set up an empirical formula. Some important details behind all of these key concepts are that when finding the mass of a product, you must always set up your stoichiometry using the limiting reactant. This is very important because if you don't use the limiting reactant you won't have enough "parts" to complete the molecules in the product. The key detail to yield is that you always need to find the theoretic or actual amount of product produced. Once you have this, you divide the actual amount by the theoretic amount then multiply by 100% in order to get your percentage yield. Finally, you want to make sure your empirical formulas are completely simplified and that you you have no decimals. We did many activities that involved all of these ideas. To introduce us to limiting and excess reactants we did this POGIL: Car parts POGIL. We then moved on to harder sheets throughout the week which made us incorporate all three ideas. We really made sure we understood these ideas by doing like 1000 sheets about them so we know we can be ready for our upcoming test.
     After all these worksheets the only question I have is if its possible to get a perfect or near perfect yield? I was thinking about this because I'm curious to see how close to perfect one could get without any error or uncertainty. My participation this past week has been good as I have done all of the worksheet and contributed to helping my group. Considering how well I was participating, I would rate my understanding of this material pretty high although one thing I should work on more are probably particle drawings. I feel like my ideas this week haven't really changed this week considering we really do anything mind blowing, but I feel like the practice with stoichiometry will pay off in the long run.