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General Thoughts: Chemistry (1 Viewer)

IR

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When petroleum industry dies, how are you going to get ethylene? Using ethanol.
No. Its only natural that you guys dont want to follow logic considering it was a 7 mark question and its your HSC.
 

IR

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Ethanol is primarily derived from fermentation because it is renewable. Ethanol derived from ethene is not renewable. The point is you would rather go with acid hydrolysis of sucrose -> glucose then fermentation as opposed to thermal/catalytic cracking of octane -> addition reaction with H2O under H2SO4. Idk if they'll mark you down for using ethene as a source, but although its possible, i've heard from teachers that its not realistic, and for most long responses, they want you to have a clear understanding of why ethanol is so good, and one of the biggest advantages is that it is renewable.
Not only that, considering this test was easier than last year they are going to specifically make it so that you can only use direct uses of ethanol. The only two in syllabus are solvent and fuel.
 

bhatman

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Honestly don't worry about the ethanol question anymore, who knows what will be considered correct or not until we get our papers back anyways. No point arguing it mercilessly here when not one of us can confirm with 100% certainty whether their opinion is correct or not.
 

IR

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yeah lol I explained the method :/ I didn't know what else to do.

What I freaking hated about this paper was that they gave you like 3 lines for a 5 mark question. It was so frustrating! I asked for like 9 extra booklets only to write 5 sentences in each :((((((((((
DW they recycle them ;)
 

IR

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will i lose marks for talking about how ethanol can be used to produce ethyl butanoate which is used as a banana flavour in foods? and i talked a huge amount of shit about how this helps society haha
Yes. 2 marks though.
 

IR

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Honestly don't worry about the ethanol question anymore, who knows what will be considered correct or not until we get our papers back anyways. No point arguing it mercilessly here when not one of us can confirm with 100% certainty whether their opinion is correct or not.
Bro u ready 3u?
 

enigma_1

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Oh you better believe it. Its why im lol'ing at anyone predicting a 95 raw.

Also why I was writing up until the last minute filling my answers with as much detail as possible while others sat there twiddling their thumbs for 30 minutes
Omg I just sighed at those dropkicks who walked out half an hour early Thanks for not doing the test properly and hence dragging us down :((

DW they recycle them ;)
oh that's good then :D
 

bhatman

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Also what is haber process and CFC's, virtually nothing on either section in the exam
 

emilios

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IR what makes you so adamant on claiming ethanol --> ethene is not valid besides "it just isnt". Weve been going in circles for hours. Cant you understand that taking a bunch of ethanol and using it.... yes USING IT (I.e. its a use) to produce ethene is considered... a use... of ethanol?

Why are you tryna make everyone feel bad for lol
 

panakap

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IR what makes you so adamant on claiming ethanol --> ethene is not valid besides "it just isnt". Weve been going in circles for hours. Cant you understand that taking a bunch of ethanol and using it.... yes USING IT (I.e. its a use) to produce ethene is considered... a use... of ethanol?

Why are you tryna make everyone feel bad for lol
+1
 

IR

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IR what makes you so adamant on claiming ethanol --> ethene is not valid besides "it just isnt". Weve been going in circles for hours. Cant you understand that taking a bunch of ethanol and using it.... yes USING IT (I.e. its a use) to produce ethene is considered... a use... of ethanol?

Why are you tryna make everyone feel bad for lol
Sorry it was an opinion. That attitude though.
 

IR

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Decent test, wasn't that hard, meaning harsher marking criteria. Don't know how I went for Short answer, but I know I screwed up the titration calculation for the purity.
Yeh dw, they wont be as harsh with criteria though.
 
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The question was impacts on society.

The USE of ethanol to form ethylene impacts positively on society blah blah blah
 

bhatman

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srs, just stop. This argument isn't going to lead to anything remotely beneficial to our understanding of how they'll mark that question. Only thing that will happen is that some people will feel bad and others will get offended.
Not worth it.
 
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mysterymarkplz

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In that case you could use ethanol as a fuel, reactant for esterification, ethene production, solvent, disinfectant, heating, etc. There are way too many options for ethanol if you follow the logic that you can use anything as long as you justify it. All you guys are saying ethanol -> ethene is possible therefore its correct. While the question does state what are the use of ethanol, you should also know in some marking criteria they reward certain uses over others? In industrial chem, there was a question on the comparison between NaOH cells, and there were Low and high quality comparisons, despite the fact that the "low quality" answers still technically answer the question.
 

iStudent

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Just to input my opinion on this topic...
I think the answer bostes was looking for was solvents and fuels since they are direct uses in the syllabus. Esters and polyethylene are indirect uses. That said I dont think they are wrong. Fuel and solvents are definitely right though. Depends on how they mark it. If many people do well in this q perhaps they may not give marks for it. If it was a hard q perhaps they will. All depends (just like the photo cells q in physics last year. They gave marks even if you did a solar cell because most students didn't actually draw a photocell).
 
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mysterymarkplz

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Yeah iStudent is right, how they mark it also depends on how well the quality of answers are, they need to maintain a certain % of high level answers to %of middle range and so on. So if people start talking about fuel and solvents and give brilliant and thorough responses to them, markers begin to lower the standard for people who didn't fuel and solvents. We can all agree that fuel and solvents were their primary focus, but just hope that they also accept esters, polyethene or some other use.
 
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