Help with Organic basics

[euchem]

Hi all, this is my first post, so please be kind Was directed here by a friend. Am currently working on a project assignment for extra credit to get into one of my preferred colleges, that comes along with a 2 page online questionnaire and am not sure of the answers of how i can simply explain it. Please see below for questions that i need help with:

 

Q22: A reaction mixture was made basic with sodium hydroxide and the crude mixture extracted into diethyl ether.

Please simply explain how this is done.

 

A:?

 

Q25: After the volume of the organic solvent was decreased, the remaining residue was treated with hydrogen chloride gas.

Please simply explain how this is done.

 

A:?

 

Q31: A crude salt, dissolved in boiling methanol, was added to chilled acetone to form a crystalline product.

Please simply explain how this is done.

 

A:?

 

Not to put a downer on anything at all but i really loved chemistry at school and now i have to pass some exams or show my current knowledge of Organic chemistry and some of the questions they ask you are incredibly advanced for a new student. Granted the college did explain that the answer scoring wont have a effect in acceptance and that its just a measuring tool of current knowledge and shows areas of certain interest, but is still daunting to be honest.

 

If anyone can help me with these questions it would be very much appreciated as i really am stuck.

 

Thanks in advance all

 

 

[hypervalent_iodine]

Have you made any attempts at these yourself?

 

These look like questions probing your knowledge on basic purification techniques more than anything else. How familiar are you with liquid-liquid extraction and acid / base work ups? Recrystallisation? I would suggest you look into these to help you.

[euchem]

I haven't even started Organic Chemistry yet, this is just a questionnaire for college. I haven't even covered the basics yet. I have spoke to a few people who have applied and they are all stumped as to why they are asking us these questions yet when we haven't even been taught anything yet? But when i spoke to a Prof running one of the classes who sends the material out he explained it has nothing to do with being accepted into this college its just a bench mark for area knowledge.

 

Of course i have googled the questions but a simple answer is like finding water on Mars.

 

Any help if possible would be great

[hypervalent_iodine]

I appreciate that you are just looking for help, but the questions are so broad that anything I could say would just give you the answer. If you have looked these things up as you say, then perhaps you could be more specific with what you aren't understanding so I or someone else can help direct you. You could also have a look at these:

 

http://courses.chem.psu.edu/chem36/Experiments/PDF's_for_techniques/Liquid_Liquid.pdf

http://www.chem.ucla.edu/~bacher/Specialtopics/extraction.html

http://www.foothill.edu/psme/armstrong/recrystallization.shtml

 

 

However, if these questions are not forming part of the college's basis for accepting / rejecting your application, I'm not sure why you are worried. Most likely the reason they are asking is just so the professor(s) has some idea of what the class knows going into the course.

[Sensei]

Not to put a downer on anything at all but i really loved chemistry at school and now i have to pass some exams or show my current knowledge of Organic chemistry and some of the questions they ask you are incredibly advanced for a new student. Granted the college did explain that the answer scoring wont have a effect in acceptance and that its just a measuring tool of current knowledge and shows areas of certain interest, but is still daunting to be honest.

If questions are to check your CURRENT knowledge, and you have no idea how to answer them, shouldn't you simply say you have no idea, when you obviously have no idea, to be honest?

If somebody (teacher) will see you answered question, he/she will assume you know the subject, and will give you even more advanced subjects, and you will be entirely fried..

 

Other example,

somebody ask you something in French, and you answered (because you google translate it and copy'n'pasted),

and then you meet each other in the real life, and he/she will be talking just French,

you will simply have no bloody idea about what..

Edited November 21, 2016 by Sensei