Mass Lab Station 4

What happens to the mass of steel wool when heated?

       We conducted this experiment in lab station 4. The chunk of steel wool was torched over a Bunson burner, with only the mass of the steel wool in the system. To our surprise, the mass of the steel after being heated (3.39g) was quite a bit greater than that of the steel beforehand (3.46g)
 In fact, the steel lost a few pieces when sparks flew off of it. But nevertheless, we conclude from our evidence that when heated, steel wool does gain mass.

Why does the steel wool gain mass when heated?

After showing our results in our whiteboard meeting, some ideas were aroused on why the mass becomes greater. We KNOW that the wool gained mass. Since it was evident only the steel wool particles were in the system, something OUTSIDE of the system must have chemically bonded with our steel wool particles. We concluded that those particles must have come from the air. So, does that mean that there are always unknown air particles that should be in our system? It would appear that way. Though we don't know what kind of particles bonded with our steel wool, we are fairly confident in our claim that a chemical does bond with our steel wool particles.

What kind of particles are bonding with the steel wool particles?

If we are indeed correct in our theory of particles chemically bonding with our steel wool particles, we have a couple options on their origin.  We already know, from past experience, a few different types of element particles present in our air.  First, there's oxygen.  Anyone who knows anything about fire knows that oxygen needs to be present to have it. It seems to make sense that oxygen could be the culprit, seeing as how if there's enough oxygen to create fire, there might also be some attraction to the flaming steel. Next, there's carbon dioxide. Humans emit it in exchange for oxygen. And, of course, there were plenty of humans in the room. I was standing right next to the experiment, breathing out carbon dioxide, so there's a possibility it could be that. And lastly, nitrogen. As far as I know, nitrogen is generated through non-living and living things. For example, if nitrogen is low in your field, you put manure in the soil to restore nitrogen levels for your crops. Then your crops posses that nitrogen. Perhaps in some sort of exchange in the air, nitrogen was added to the steel wool. We can't be sure what particles exactly were added to the steel particles, but we have these ideas.

-Hallie Spore