Chemistry: Fun and Insightful

Popular books and movies usually depict chemist’s lab as a place where everything boils or smells, changes its color or explodes. In real life, some chemical transformations (a.k.a. reactions) are accompanied by various spectacular effects, whereas majority of other reactions occur calmly, without any visible changes, and they may be very slow. Why does it happen? During this semilab, we will be doing various experiments in attempts to understand that. We will try to answer the questions on what do the words “chemical reaction” mean, how can chemical reactions be initiated, how can they be accelerated, decelerated, or even stopped, when necessary. Keeping in mind that summer is a vacation time, we will be doing mostly the experiments that produce some fun effect, because (i) they can perfectly serve educational purposes, and (ii) I myself would love doing fun experiments during my vacation time.