Chemistry Honors – Class 07

Who are these people?

Dates

Activity: Black Box

Purpose

The purpose of this lab is to determine the nature of objects inside a closed box, without opening the box.
The goal is not to guess what is inside the box but to describe what it must be like inside the box in order to account for the behavior inside the box.

Procedure

By moving the box in many different ways, observe the sounds, and feel of the objects inside the box.
Make appropriate observations and conclusions based on these activities.
Record an observation each time a different manipulation is made.
Test any theories that might arise by devising new things which can be done to the box to discover its contents.
Repeat this as often as is necessary to make a detailed theory.

Background

The same process of indirectly observing is used to explain the nature and behavior of the atom.
All that is known about the atom is due to conclusions made in the same manner as is illustrated with this experiment.
Any properties of what is being observed are only interpretations of indirect experiments.
These interpretations provide plausible explanations for what is happening.
If new experiments are conducted on the atom and the new data is not explained by the current theory, then the theory must be modified, as must be done continuously during this experiment.

Data

Conclusion

This section will include the best theory (along with a drawing) as to the contents of the box and any further experiments which might be conducted to test this theory.

Homework

Chemteacher