in my chemistry class we have to be a teacher for a day, and my topic is ceramics. the lab that i am going to do has to do with sand and straw and the students will make clay and see how strong it is. so i don‘t know how to make clay, like how are you suppose to mix it? are there different types of mixing these two ingredients together, for example : a lot of straw but not a lot of sand, and a lot of sand but not a lot of straw. i only came up with 4 different ways any help?? and also any tips on how to go about this?? sorry if I am no making much sense :( but please help me if you can.ps: oh and any good websites that tell me about ceramics and its chemical make up and such would be a great help :)
if you have sand and straw you don't have clay. Sand is (in its most simple form) silicon dioxide. Clays have additional minerals like Mg or Al in them - chemically speaking. Nevertheless the option of making molds from sand is still used this day for metal casting. And straw or hay has been used in the past to give molds more strength - actually they used horse manure as the straw or hay has been digested to an useful fiber size. As to your experiment I would guess that's set by the teacher, so you need to discuss that with your teacher. You obviously can vary how long the straw is or cut it really short and fine. As for websites on ceramics you need to learn to do your own research and just use google and you'll find plenty. You also can use pedia to get you started. You probably need to make a decision whether you want to investigate ceramics in a more art related or techical/engineering field. You could investigate ceramics as related to artificial teeth or to making electrical insulators instead of researching plates and pots. You'll have to make some decisions what you and your class mates will find most interesting and then see what you can find out.
A ceramic is a warmth taken care of non metallic inorganic substance that's heated to a point that the debris start to soften and fuse without totally melting; on cooling you get a no longer elementary opaque stone like substance referred to as ceramic. Ceramic is frequently nonetheless no longer continuously made out of clay (there are some unique business ceramics that are no longer made out of clay however the form which you are able to purchase, eg. earthenware/terracotta, stoneware, porcelain, bone china) are made out of a mix of clay and powdered rock. Clay is a of course happening combination of finely powdered minerals, particularly silica (that's what flint and quartz are made out of) and alumina; there are a number of categories of clay looking on the place you come across it and the geological approaches that made it. Terracotta is what you get once you hearth pink earthenware clay, the ceramic is reddy orange and porous. China clay or kaolin is white and whilst blended with powdered cornwall stone, it makes a clay combination outfitted to porcelain.
