today in class 9-28-10

Today in class we had a fun experiment where we separated carbohydrates of sugar. We put sugar into a beaker then we poured sulfuric acid on top of the sugar and stirred it all together. At the beginning it started to change color and then it began to bubble and steam then boil over the beaker. I learned what it would be like to break down atoms to get them to be by them self. It got bigger because they were no longer compacted into one thing they were all separated. What I'm not so sure about is how the sulfuric acid can do that to the sugar.

antacid lab

How do antacids work?

Antacids work by neutralizing acid and coating the stomach. The opposite of an acid is a base, and that's what antacid is. Antacids make you feel better by increasing the pH balance in your stomach. The ph is a scale for measuring the acidity or the base of a given environment. The scale goes from 0 to 14. A pH of 7 s neutral. Anything below 7 is an acid and anything above 7 is a base. For the antacid to work all it has to do is get you to a 3 or 4, it does this by neutralizing some of the extra acid.

Acids= taste sour, are corrosive to metals, change litmas red, and become less acidic when mixed with bases.

Bases= feel slippery, change litmus blue, and become less basic when mixed with acids.

antacid lab

Acids taste sour, are corrosive to metals, change litmus (a dye extracted from lichens) red, and become less acidic when mixed with bases.
Bases feel slippery, change litmus blue, and become less basic when mixed with acids.

 Antacids work by neutralizing acid and coating the stomach.

The opposite of an acid is a base, and that's exactly what an antacid is.

 Antacids make you feel better by increasing the pH balance in your stomach. The pH system is a scale for measuring the acidity or alkalinity of a given environment (in this case, your stomach). The scale goes from 0 to 14. A pH of 7 is neutral. Below 7 is acid. Above 7 is alkaline.

 

Normally, the acid level in your stomach is about 2 or 3. Trouble may start when your pH drops below those numbers. To make you feel better, an antacid need not bring the pH level all the way up to 7 (neutral), which would be a highly unnatural state for your stomach. In order to work, all the antacid has to do is get you to 3 or 4. It does this by neutralizing some of the excess acid.

 

Due to several complex factors, a base can't neutralize your acid all by itself. A base needs some chemical "helpers," or ingredients, to accompany it as it neutralizes the acid in your stomach.

Clinical trials

Clinical trials are experiments in where new treatments or diagnostic methods are test in people to see whether or not the new drug will work with them the way it's supposed to. They do it so that neither the patient or the doctors giving the treatments know if it is the real drug or if it is just a placebo pill (sugar pill). This is called double blind because two parties don't know but there is always a third party that will know whether or not the drug has worked or not. The reason they test these experimental drugs, vaccines, and other types or therapy with double blindness is so that it is unbiased. It needs to be unbiased so that the company making the drugs can't say that it really helped someone when it didn't.