Today in chem lab we had to make a solution that had target concentrations of three different compounds. The concentrations were measured by their absorbency. My first run, meticulously measured out everything, tediously diluted everything, scrupulously washed all glassware and oven dried them after rinsing them with boiled and de-ionized water. Let it equilibrate for 30mins. Took about three hours in total.

Terribly off target.

The professor recommends I check all my calculations. Spend about 30 minutes doing so, can't find any mistakes. Not much time left in class, and I want to do another run. I reach into my lab drawer, pull out a beaker. Dirty? whatever. Go measure out .0063g of the first compound. .0071 ? close enough. Quickly pipette 5mL of HCl in. A little over the indicator line? Sure. Measure out .5445g of the other compound. Directly into a graduated cyclinder? alright. .5459g? Fine. Fill to the 95mL line with tap water? Done. Mix it all together. Equilibrate? 5mins is good enough I guess.

Absorbency? ******** spot on. Exactly what the professor had on his list of targets for each respective concentration. what the f*ck.

Didn't know if I should be happy or rage quit. Still don't know...