That day we did a Hydrate Lab.

Hydrates are ionic compounds that contain an inorganic salt compound loosely bound to water. The purpose of this experiment is to determine the empirical formula of a hydrate. Examples are magnesium sulfate heptahydrate (epsom salts and sodium carbonate decahydrate (washing soda). In the lab, we were determining the anhydrous (without water) mass of the hydrate. We compared this with the actual mass of water that should be present.