Question

if you were analyzing an unknown that boiled at a temperature above 100 degrees celcius, how could you modify the experiment so that you COULD determine the boiling point of the unknown liquid? explain

Answer 1

This actually depends of the experiment you are doing, but in general terms if you are actually determining the boiling point of the liquid, here's some tips:

Heating the liquid in a test tube by heating a beaker with water provides a much more even heating of the unknown liquid than heating the test tube directly with the Bunsen burner. Using water in the beaker works because the unknown liquids could boil below the boiling point of water. But the unknown liquid have a boiling point higher than water, so it would never boil because the boiling water would prevent the water from going over 100°C. In this case you would have to use oil in the beaker because its much higher boiling point. The oil will still distribute the heat evenly around the unknown liquid in the test tube.

Hope this helps