A Preliminary Climate Change Investigation

A Candle in the Wind: A Preliminary Climate Change Investigation

We will be burning a small candle in a closed container and initially measuring CO₂.  Your task (should you choose to accept it-though for a grade greater than zero we hope you do) is to do prior research on what is wax and what chemical reaction takes place when it is burned.  The question to be investigated is, “does the burning of the candle change the carbon dioxide amount of the air.”  From this question formulate a hypothesis prior to doing the investigation.

Procedure: 

1.            Connect a CO₂ sensor to channel 1 of a labpro or CBL2. 

2.            Open easydata on your TI-84+, you will be using the default time-            graph setting of 600 s. 

3.            Put a small amount of peanut butter on a glass slide to hold the             birthday candle and put it on top of a 400 ml beaker on the floor or fireproof lab station. 

4.            Tape a Vernier CO₂ sensor to the inside of the bucket pointing  toward the bottom of the bucket. 

5.            Start the data collection and wait 30 s before lighting the candle.  Once the candle is lit very carefully put the bucket over the  candle/beaker setup.

6.            When data collection  is complete, remove the bucket from the  candle and make a note if the candle is still burning or not.

7.              Transfer your data to your computer and import it into the graphing program of your choice.

Extension:  Choose one other parameter to measure.  Formulate a new hypothesis based on this parameter.  Follow the above procedure except with a different sensor (if it is needed)

Lab Report:  See Lab Report handout and explanation