Appropriate use of blanks, standards, and controls in chemical measurements

The differences between and proper use of controls, blanks, standards, dummy analyses, and system suitability checks and how these are used to guard against systematic bias in measurements were addressed. Measurements related to simple structure elucidation and concentration determinations were used to exemplify the use of these techniques to increase confidence, setting aside the larger issues related to designing complex series of experiments aimed at verifying or contradicting theories. Case studies show the systematic incorporation of these methods into relatively simple experiments to provide the students with some concrete ways of understanding their application.