Baby Bottle Lab

   

In chemistry class we did a lab with baby bottles. Weird yes, but interesting.  We needed to come up with the perfect formula with sodium bicarbonate and vinegar that would let the baby bottle travel in a 600cm gutter filled with water. My formula that I came up with was 9 grams of sodium bicarbonate and  125 mL of vinegar. It took me 9 trials in order to get my formula . What confounded me in this lab was that someone would try a certain amount of sodium bicarbonate and vinegar and the baby bottle would travel the 600cm. I would then try the same formula but I was not able to make the full 600cm. In this lab I was also able to learn about limiting reactants. Limiting reactant is the smallest stoichiometric amount in the reactant. In other words the limiting reactant is the reactant that you'll run out of first. In this lab the limiting reactant was the sodium bicarbonate. What I would do differently in this lab would be to start off  with large amounts of sodium bicarbonate and vinegar instead of small amounts that way if I need to I can decrease my amounts. I will continue my trial and errors until I get the prefect formula.