Chemguide

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Pearson's Edexcel International GCSE Chemistry books


Kinetic Theory, diffusion, solubility, elements, compounds and mixtures

Simple models of solids, liquids and gases

Short animation of the arrangement and movement of particles in a solid, a liquid and a gas. The particles in the liquid in the animation are rather further apart than ideal. YouTube

What causes the bubbles when water boils?

A simple explanation of what you see when water boils. YouTube

The evaporation of water

An animation showing that, unlike boiling, evaporation only takes place from the surface of the water. YouTube

Sublimation of dry ice

Dry ice is solid carbon dioxide. This short video shows it subliming - turning straight from solid to gas without forming any liquid on the way. YouTube

Sublimation of iodine

Iodine being heated by a small flame (mostly out of shot) and condensing again on a "cold finger" - a tube filled with (probably) very cold water. No commentary, and the titles are in German, but a neat view of sublimation. Again notice that no liquid appears anywhere within the flask, either going from solid to vapour, or vapour back to solid again. YouTube

Diffusion experiments

This is a beautifully produced survey of the main diffusion demonstrations. It takes about 5 minutes, but is the most valuable of the videos in this list. The only downside is that it asks questions which it doesn't answer - so you will need to think! YouTube

A solubility curve for potassium nitrate

You can plot a solubility curve by measuring the solubility at a number of defined temperatures and then plotting a graph, but it could take ages. This video shows an alternative way of producing the information to draw a solubility curve which can be done much more quickly. The concentration of the solution is defined, and you then find the temperature at which it begins to crystallise. However, to get good results, you would have to do it with a lot more care than shown in the video! YouTube

Elements, compounds and mixtures

Simple introduction to the different terms. YouTube

Simple distillation

This video is the best one I could find simply showing the distillation process without spending lots of time looking at how to put the apparatus together. Unfortunately the editing leaves a lot to be desired, and the commentary doesn't start until more than a minute into the video. You probably won't want to watch the whole thing. YouTube

Fractional distillation

Fractional distillation of a liquid mixture in a university lab. YouTube

Paper chromatography

I can't find a good paper chromatography video which also measures Rf values. All the versions I have looked at are either lectures with diagrams, or are making quick chromatograms to give an idea of what happens. This video is just a very simple example of paper chromatography of black ink simply showing the separation of the colours. YouTube


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© Jim Clark 2017