17th Day of Project - May 25, 2010

I apologize for the late blogging on this day, the reason I din't blog on that day is because I wasn't feeling very well. So I thought I should write a little bit about that day.

So, Prof. Wainright and I discussed the data I got from all the separation experiments I have been performing. We had some data that had been simulated by UNIF, so we compared the data and graphs I had with the simulation data. The data I had collected didn't turn out to be what we were expecting them to be. The data we had was nowhere close to the simulation, and that could be due to two reasons: either the simulation data is not entirely accurate (which is highly possible, because this data is not based on real experiments); or the separations I was trying to do (the liquid-liquid extration ofm methanol/water/1-octanol) could not work. The professor decided that according to my data there was no way we could do the lab, it would not work and it would lead the students to start concentrating on parts of the lab that are not vital.

As you can imagine, I was crushed to learn that the work I had done for three works hadn't given the results that I had expected. But as the professor told me, atleast we found out the lab wouldn't work before setting up the lab for the senior students and realizing late that it doesn't work. And he reminded me of what Albert Einstein once said, "If we knew what we were doing it wouldn't be research."

Also, Mr. Looney made a site visit. I introduced him to the two professors I have been working with and showed him around the labs. I also got to explain to him about the experiments I had been doing, and about the GC (with major help from Dr. Virnelson, he explained in detail how the GC works.) And Prof. Wainright explained the experiment we were strating - Gas absorption.

Besides not feeling well, it was a great day.