Lab Report: Relative Reactivities of Metals

LAB REPORT:

Relative Reactivities of Metals

7/16/13

Charlie, Gerogie, Ben

Dr. Forman

Results:

1. Both Magnesium and zinc reacted with the most solutions.

2. Copper reacted with the fewest salutations. 

3. If we tested silver metals, it would react with neither of the solutions. This is because silver has one of the lowest reactivities, and since all the solutions have a higher reactivity, silver will not react with another of the solutions.

4. The most reactive metals in order from greatest to least are:

    1. magnesium

    2. zinc

    3. copper

    4. silver

5. The outside of a penny is made of copper instead of zinc because copper is less reactive than zinc. And because copper is less reactive, it will not react with other materials as often, so it will keep its form.

6. a. Out of the four metals mentioned in this investigation, silver would be the best choice to use for the outside of a penny because it is less reactive than copper, so it would react with less materials than copper does.

   b. I think silver is not used on the outside surface of a penny because it may be more expensive to obtain than copper, or there isn't a great abundance of this metal as there is for copper.

7. a. Silver would be most likely to be found in an uncombined, or "free" state in nature because it is less reactive; therefore, it is wont combine with other materials easily, so it should be found "free."

    b. Magnesium would be least likely to be found chemically uncombined with other elements because it is a metal that is most reactive; therefore, will combine with other material more often and more easily.

8. a.Yes, it would be possible to estimate one or more of the metal-solution combinations and still obtain all the information because if you have the reactivity for one thing, than that can give you an estimate for how reactive the metal is.

   b. The combinations that could have been eliminated would be magnesium nitrate because since that was the most reactive solution and metal, it would not cause a solution with the other metals; therefore, give us no information.

Aggregated class data:

After all the groups have combined all their data together, most groups got the same results. The only results that have one or so groups that had a different results were for the reaction with copper in copper nitrate and with magnesium in zinc nitrate. The reason most groups got the same results because the reactions were more noticeable, and didn't involve intricate determining.