A Timesharing Computer Program for a General Chemistry Laboratory General and physical chemistry students can easily determine the heat of vaporization of a volatile substance from experimental data using timesharing techniques. An Iverson symbol APL program plots the linear equation loglo C and calculates the heat of vaporization of a volatile liquid using experimental data from the labVP = -H/23RT oratory. The program contains simplified instructions and virtually no knowledge of computer operation is required. Successive sets of laboratory data may be input with relative ease. The computer requires a minimum of three erperimental trials and will accept any amount of data limited only by the size of the computer's workspace. After the student initializes the data input mode by following the computer's instruction, the computer will request the number of experimental trials and the laboratory data for each trial. The computer prints tables of input data and calculated output data including loglo VP, 1/T, y-intercept (constant C of the linear equation), and heat of vaporization. The calculated heat of vaporization is rounded to three significant figures. The program ends by printing a eamputer-sealed and labelled plot of laglo VPas ordinate verses l / T a s abscissa. This program has been tested with general and physical chemistry classes far the past year. The students are exposed to a few timesharing techniques and have responded with enthusiasm. Students are required to compare the computer results with their own calculated results and are further impressed by the convenience and efficiency of computers in chemical education. Copiesof the program code in Iverson-symbol APL may be obtained upon request.
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Columbia-Greene Community College Hudson. New York 12934
Gary L. Cutler Donald A. Drum
Volume 52. Number 8, August 1975 / 529
