Gases and Climate Change

Combustion Demo

Hypothesis: The alcohol will combust relatively well, due to the flammable properties of the alcohol. Also, most or all of it will burn away because of the heat.

Observation: Once the flame reached the gas, the bottle shot off the desk extremely fast because of the ignition properties. It was like a bottle rocket, only bigger and cooler. It had a blue flame going off until it all burned away. It went about 8 feet and flew superbly fast and farther than expected. There is some blackish residue left over.

What I learned about Combustion: I learned that through combustion, harmful gases are going into the atmosphere causing danger to natural areas such as glaciers and coral reefs because of (mainly) rising temperatures. CO2 and O3 are greenhouse gases that are heating up the planet, and CFC is breaking up the vital ozone layer.

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CO2 Gas Demo

Hypothesis: I believe that the candles will die out, because fire requires oxygen to survive.

Observation: The carbon dioxide gas did cause the flames to die out due to the lack of oxygen in the nearby air.

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Hydrogen Gas Demo

Hypothesis: The gas will ignite very well due to the ability for hydrogen gas to become an alternate fuel for cars.

Observation: The beaker is very warm due to the exothermic reaction and the flame going on. The hydrogen gas did ignite and stay aflame for several seconds and continuously kept sizzling and burning. The zinc used as a form of metal completely dissipated and dissolved during the chemical reaction.

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Air Pressure Demo

Right-Side Up

Hypothesis: The can will sizzle and the water vapor will freeze, causing small snowflake-like precipitation. Also, the water in the can will sizzle rapidly. This is due to the rapid change of temperature.

Observation: Relatively nothing occurred whatsoever.

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Up-Side Down

Hypothesis: I believe that the can will crumple because the gas will have dissipated completely and shrunk the can.

Observation: The can crumpled within a second and became a "shriveled mess."

Air Pressure Affecting Climate Change: Air pressure is being changed every day because of the greenhouse effect. Air pressure affects how moisture moves around in the atmosphere, and these changes can affect rainfall, temperatures, and storms. There was an increase of rainfall over Scotland, reduced rain in Spain, and a drop in the number of cold snaps in France. Scientists have been underestimating change in air pressure for many years.

A quote from the site: "These trends will tend to make winters warmer, wetter and windier in northwest Europe", says Gillett. "Winters in much of western Canada and the USA will be milder, southern Europe will be drier, and Labrador and Greenland will have colder winters."

As long as human-caused gases are in the atmosphere, the air pressure will be affected.