Mystery Powder Lab

Use the evidence provided by the tests to identify the mystery powder. The mystery powder (#5) is the baking powder. My partners and I figured this out because the physical and chemical properties of both of the substances are very similar. For example, both powders are not soluble in water, and they both turned red when they reacted with the universal indicator.

2. Which physical properties did you examine in this activity? The physical properties that we examined in this activity were state, colour, texture, clarity, shape, and hardness. We did this by examining each powder with a magnifying class once we placed it on the watch glass. My group and I determined that each of the powders state was solid, all of them were a white colour, and they were all opaque.

3. What other physical properties could have helped to identify te mysery powder? Why were these properties not tested in this activity?

I think that these properties were not tested because it would have taken much longer to check the mass, and boiling point. Testing for the scent of each of the powders may haven’t been much of a help as they probably all smell very similar. Also, we don’t have a stove top in the science classroom so checking the boiling point would be difficult. Another reason as to why that we didn’t check mass is because it would have been difficult to get the exact same amount of each substance for the measurements would be accurate. Finally, all those physical properties would result in quantitative measurements and we didn’t include any other quantitative measurements in this