Growing Alum Crystals
Aim:
To grow and form crystals from Aluminium Potassium Sulphate under the microscope.
Materials:
Stereo microscope
Watch glass
Petri dish
50ml glass
Stirring rod
Bunsen burner
Tripod
Gauze Mat
Heat mat
Matches
Container of Aluminium Potassium Sulphate
Food colouring
Plastic dropper
Method:
Measure 20ml of water into a 50ml beaker
Add one drop of water
Then empty the contents of the container (10g) of aluminium potassium sulphate into the beaker.
Place the beaker onto the gauze mat and heat with stirring until all the solid has dissolved.
Be very careful that you do not knock the beaker over.
Do not leave the stirring rod in the beaker as the beaker may tip over.
When all the solid has dissolved turn off the…show more content… Then make observations.
Observations:
The crystals formed quickly once the warm water they had dissolved in had been put on top of the cold water. They crystals looked yellowish due to the dye and were 3D in shape.
Results:
During this we were able make crystals using aluminium potassium sulphate and were able to look into the microscope and see the crystals grow.
Discussion Questions
The difference between magma and lava is magma is underground and lava is above ground. These create different kinds of igneous rock.
Sedimentary rocks form at the earth surface because the smaller bits of rocks and other bits get layer on the bottom of the sea floor, pressure get puts on the layers and they form together to make sedimentary rocks.
The condition you need to create large crystals is different to the ones you need to create small crystals. To make large crystals they need to form slowly and there isn't a big change in the temperature, but with the large crystals the conditions are that it needs to go from hot to col quickly.
The reason pumice doesn't have crystal structure is because it is formed when lava erupts from a volcano, because of the rapid change in temperature the rock forms quickly with no time for crystals to