Lab report 5

Possible sources of error include losing naphthalene or benzoic acid crystals while transferring from one piece of equipment to the next, and failing to scrape all of the naphthalene from the Hirsch funnel after recrystallization. Both of these sources of error are very likely and would explain the low recovery percentages.

Lab Reports and Lab Memos should be written in paragraph form, using headings for main sections like Introduction, Experimental Methodology, etc. There is no length stipulation; however, a lab memo will be shorter than a lab report.

State the objective of the lab exercise. Though this is provided in the lab documents, the purpose should be restated in your own words. Provide a brief overview or “roadmap” of the report contents. This section should detail the procedure and equipment used in the lab. Describe the steps used in the experiment in paragraph form.

It is acceptable to repeat information from the rest of the lab report, however the summary should not include any new information or conclusions that are not already stated elsewhere. For this reason, it is advisable to write the executive summary last.