Question

The combustion of magnesium creates so much energy so quickly that it is hard to measure its enthalpy directly using a simple calorimeter. However, you will break this reaction down into other intermediate reactions whose enthalpies you can – and will – measure. What broad question are you answering by doing this experiment?

Answer 1

The experiment aims to measure the enthalpy change of magnesium combustion indirectly, using stoichiometric calculations and intermediate reactions with known enthalpies, due to the direct measurement challenges posed by the rapid energy release during the reaction.

Step-by-step explanation:

The broad question being answered by conducting an experiment to determine the enthalpy change of the combustion of magnesium through intermediate reactions is how to measure the heat change or enthalpy change associated with a chemical reaction that releases energy too rapidly to be directly measured by simple calorimetry.

Since direct calorimetry of highly exothermic reactions like the combustion of magnesium can be challenging due to the rapid release of energy, chemists use stoichiometric calculations and indirect methods involving a series of intermediate reactions, combining known enthalpy changes to calculate the enthalpy of the target reaction. This approach is analogous to the way Hess's Law is applied to determine the enthalpy change of a reaction. By breaking down the high-energy combustion process into intermediate steps and using a bomb calorimeter for measurements, we can accurately calculate the enthalpy change for the overall reaction.