Iodine

61 The Castle of Quantification A major development in the discovery of Nature's Chemical Laws was the use of the balance during experiments. By quantifying the mass of reactants and products, chemists uncovered regularities and created new generalizations about the physical world. These generalizations are important to us today. For instance, in industry the optimization of product is often extremely important economically. By knowing the relationship between reactants and products, chemists can predict how much product will be made from the amount of reactants they stafted out with; this minimizes the quantity of wasted reactants and thereby increases efficiency of the manufacturing process. Your job is to find this relationship. 1l l' ,.: ',:'- '1," ,,,,,,

15 Southside Seaweed Seaport Chemists are often depicted in movies or in books as eccentric and absent-minded p:ofessors. ln reality chemists are very in touch with the needs of society and are more practical tnan you nay think. Chemists often isolate substances found in nature or create new substances that benefil our heai:h. This activity is a case in point. You will be isolating an iodide salt that will be used to prepare a tinctlrre of lodine. Sold as an over-the-counter drug in your local pharmacy, iqQlne is used as an antiseptic on cL(s and scrapes of the skin. lodine has also been used to sanitize swimming pools and medical instruments pur,fy drinking water and is used in the treatment of goiter (swelling of the thyroid). I hope that this acti\.i}, r,rill convince many of