Product testing

Sometimes we have gases that we can't identify by the smell or the color. Luckily there is a way to determine that gas in a very simple and easy way, which is product testing.

There are 3 different types of product testing; oxygen, hydrogen, and carbon dioxide.

• to determine if the gas is oxygen, you would use a glowing splint (which is a splint that is not burning, but is still glowing from a flame just being blown out). If you put the glowing splint in the presence of oxygen, it will relight. There is an example of this in the video below
• If a test tube contains hydrogen when a lighted splint is placed in the tube, it will make a loud "squeaky pop". There is an example of this in the video below.
• The product testing for carbon dioxide can be pretty complicated. To test for carbon dioxide, you bubble the gas over lime water (which is normally opaque) and it will turn a milky color. This concept is much easier to understand in the video below.