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Even if you are not a chemist by either profession or by major, you do work with chemicals everyday of your life.  In a common household there are hundreds of chemicals that clean our houses, clean our hair and bodies, cook our food or even cure our aches and pains.  All of these substances are chemicals and the actions they perform are dependent on their chemical natures.
            Listed below are some of the more common household chemicals, listed by both their common names as well as their use around the house.  In today’s lab, we will be examining some of the physical and chemical properties of these substances in order to match the common name to the chemical name and better understand how they work in the everyday world.

The chemical names or formulas for the common household chemicals above are contained in this list (in no particular order): NaHCO₃, MgSO₄, H₃BO₃, Fructose, NaOH, CaCO₃, Na₂CO₃.  Your job today is to match up the chemical name with the common name based on the description of the chemical nature of that household chemical given above.  You will be given each of the chemicals above in reagent bottles marked with their real chemical name and formula.  You will then perform several analytical tests to determine which chemical is which.  The tests you will be able to run are solubility, pH and a test to determine the presence of a sugar.