Chemistry Enthalpy Changes Practical

So, today in Chemistry we were doing an experiment to determine Enthalpy Changes,
For those of you who don't know what this is (and there's probably alot of you), I'll define :

For a reaction, is approximately equal to the difference between the energy used to break bonds and the energy gained by the formation of new ones.

Basicly, were just learning it because we have to...

So as I did in the post below I'm going to give a method of what we did, so that you readers at home can also learn about Enthalpy Changes.

You need

• 1 tin can with polystyryine lid (must have a hole in it)
  
• Cotten wool
• Plastic Cup (one you can chuck out)
• 2 beakers
• 2 measuring cylinders
• Stop Clock
• 50cm^3 of 1 Mol NaOH (Sodium Hydroxide)
  
• 50cm^3 of 1 Mol HCl (Hydrogen Chloride)
• Thermometer
  

Method

1. Put your cup in your tin can and fill the rest of the tin can with cotten wool, until it is properly insulated,
2. Use the measuring cylinder to measure out 50cm^3 of NaOH and HCl
3. Add the NaOH to your plasic cup and put the lid on
4. Take a series of reading evert 5 seconds using your stop clock and your theremometer, until the solution reaches a constant temp.
5. Now add the HCl to the cup and continue to take the temperature - (now make sure you take the temp. as soon as you add the HCl, this temp. change occurs very fast)

So this is what we did in Chemistry.
After this we then plotted a graph to show the temp. change in an easy format.


That was our Chem. lesson,
I thought I'd now put a bit about my other lessons,
In Maths, on monday I did a maths test, today I got my results back, - 90% yay me, I was very pleased as you would imagine,
Biology, I have just been told I have to write a 1000 word essay titled "Arguments For and Against developing a genetic finger print profile for all members of society" - doesn't it sound so fun!
And last but not least... Psychology, well, I made a poster of some form, (was a pointless lesson) and it was a shame because I usually look forward to pysc.