Question

a student thought he carefully followed the directions in the experimental procedure, and he expected 2.63g of product. however, he isolated 3.05 g of product. what could account for the excess mass?

Answer 1

Several factors could lead to an excess mass of the product isolated in an experiment, including the product not being fully dry, the presence of impurities or side products, measurement errors, or loss of product during handling and transfer.

Step-by-step explanation:

When the student isolated 3.05 g of a product instead of the expected 2.63 g, several factors could account for the excess mass. First, the product may have been not completely dry, leading to additional water weight. Second, there could have been impurities in the product that added to the weight. Third, there might have been a measurement error during the weighing process. Additionally, in some reactions, side reactions can occur which produce other products that could add to the mass. Lastly, human error during transfer and isolation, such as loss of product to the container walls or incomplete transfer can lead to inaccuracies in the final recorded mass.