Question

A student had difficulty decanting the supernatant solution from some test tubes, causing him to transfer some of the solid from the antacid tablet with the solution. Would this result in a high, low, or unchanged calculated mass of Ca2+ ion in the analyzed tablet?

Answer 1

A student had difficulty decanting the supernatant solution from some test tubes, causing him to transfer some of the solid from the antacid tablet with the solution. Would this result in a high, low, or unchanged calculated mass of Ca2+ ion in the analyzed tablet?

assume the antacid tablet is CaCO3 mainly...

Note that

CaCO3 has a certain solubility

IF this is saturated ( which is most likely ) then the solution will have the SAME equilbirium concentration of CA+2, therefore, no effect.

IF the solution was not saturated ( which is not likely, yet possible) then the effec twill be that not enough Ca+2 was allowed to go into solution, so the final amount will be LOWER than the real value