Question

Chem Lab 101 Summarize what you observe when you disconnect the stopper from the flask after the flask has cooled. This is one of the questions for my Chem 101 Lab that I somehow missed. The experiment involved placing a rubber stopper over a 150 mL beaker with a pressure sensor fixed to a hole in the stopper. The flask was then placed in a beaker of boiling water and the water's heat source was turned off. After all measurements where recorded the flask was removed from the water and allowed to cool. My lab partner and I never paid any attention to the flask while cleaning up and I can't figure out what was expected to occur once the stopper was removed. The flask was not filled with any particular gas, It was just the surrounding air. The pressure in the flask was obviously decreasing as the temperature dropped but wouldn't that have resulted in the pressure returning to 1atm at room temperature? Would condensation have formed on the inside of the flask? Is it possible for the pressure inside the flask to be smaller or larger than 1atm to make the stopper more or less difficult to remove?

Answer 1