Thinking+Flexibly

In Chemistry Thinking Flexibly entails finding alternate solutions to the same problem. Whether that be using a traditional method or finding a new one. It is important to find different ways to approach the same problem because each different method used can tell us something unknown before. Also having different methods for finding a solution makes you more versatile and more adaptable to solving problems.

When we were on the Kinetics unit in Chapter 6 we were doing an experiment to investigate the rate of reaction. Our lab told us to measure the volume of the gaseous product. You do this by measuring the change in the volume of the gas evolved in the reaction. I began thinking about what other ways I could use to find the rate of reaction. After thinking about what I knew and the properties of a reaction, I began to find different methods in order to investigate the rate of reaction. For example, another method would be to find the increases in the mass of the gaseous product. You could measure the change in the mass of the gas evolved in the reaction and that would also give you the rate of reaction. Another method would be to find the time taken for the formation of a solid product using a stopwatch. All of these methods have there pros and cons. There isn't one perfect way to find the rate of change; that is what I learned from this lab. It is up to preference and what is given/what is more readily available to the scientist. By approaching how to find rate of reaction from different angles i was able to understand the process more and understand the variables that go into solving it. That is probably one of the reasons I understood this chapter more easily.

(http://johnwest.edublogs.org/files/2009/08/rate-of-reaction-1-300x194.png)