Striving+for+Accuracy

__Striving for Accuracy and Precision__

__My Understand of this Habit:__ This habit means to keep checking your work over and over in order to eliminate possible careless mistakes. This also means conducting more trials in order to acquire more accurate results. (May also help to determine whether it is a random or systematic error affecting the experiment)

__How I Applied this Habit to Chemistry:__ In our first experiment of the "Acids and Bases" unit in general chemistry we tested a list of samples as being acids or bases. Prior to the lab, we read that Robert Boyle's work showed that acids change plant juice and litmus paper from purple to red, while bases change plant juice and litmus paper bluish-green. We boiled two samples of cabbage leaves in 100ml of water in case one sample was not working correctly. When it came to recording the color of the plant juice, litmus paper, and phenolphthalein, I noticed that I had accidentally wrote some data in a different column. This resulted in a quite tedious process where I had to amend my mistakes. (Which I wrote in pen) This experience has taught me to never be too confident when recording data down because as an experiment may be performed fairly quickly, we might be prone to be making minor errors. It is always necessary to recheck data with peers or to just use common sense to see whether or not the data makes sense in relation to the observations and hypothesis. This habit aids in our understanding of the experiment, in terms of the procedure and places where possible errors may occur, or modifications to the experimental design which may improve the overall acquiring of data. Even if the data obtained is not exactly accurate (When compared to the literature value), we can still be precise and say that the flaw is due to a systematic error which may be pretty evident after conducting that many trials.

The figure below is of the color of the samples after adding a drop of the cabbage solution. Blue colors indicate bases while red colors indicate acids.