Aim: To see what combination's of vinegar and water will corrode an iron nail in the fastest in a period of three weeks.

Aim

My hypothesis it that the 3ml vinegar 3ml water will erode the nails the fastest because of the large amount acetic acid in the vinegar. I think the water won’t do a very good job because it doesn’t have a very big amount of eroding substances like acid in it.

Hypothesis

Equipment: 4 Iron nails 6ml vinegar 18ml  waterFour test tubesA test tube holder

Equipment

Method: 1. Fill each test tube. The first test tube should be filled with 6ml of water and nothing else Using a measuring cylinder and then taking the measured amount of liquid using a pipette.

2. The second test tube should be filled with 5ml of water and 1ml of vinegar using a measuring cylinder and then taking the measured amount of liquid using a pipette.

3. The third test tube should be filled with 4ml of water and 2ml of vinegar using a measuring cylinder.

4. The fourth and final test tube should be filled with 3ml of water and 3ml of vinegar using a measuring cylinder and then taking the measured amount of liquid using a pipette.

5. Weigh each nail so when the experiment is over you can test if there is any difference in weight.

6. Check every day and record any results on the rust of the nails

Method

Day 1. The 6ml of water test tube is eroding the nail more than anything else. I think it is because the amount of oxygen is high and oxygen is a key component of rusting. I will record next when I am finishing up.

Final day: All the nails have eroded to some extent but the water seems to have

eroded the nail in it the most. Most of the nails have eroded and one of the vinegars has eroded heaps but the water is still eroding it the most. I will weigh the nails. This is before I took them out of the test tube.

 

Results.

 

Concoction Starting weight Ending weight Average weight lost

3ml water 3ml vinegar. 0.8 grams 0.7 grams 0.4 grams

4ml water 2ml water 0.8 grams 0.6 grams Per Test

5ml water 1ml vinegar 0.8 grams 0.5 grams tube

6ml water 0.7 grams 0.4 grams

At the start I thought that the vinegar would rust it the most because of the large amount of acetic acid in it, but the water was rusting it a lot more until the vinegar flared up and made a really big layer of rust at the top of the test tube, I think it was because a reaction happened between the vinegar and the rust that it had produced. Rust is created when oxidation process happens and that is why it is called iron oxide. It happens when iron is exposed to oxygen over a long period of time, and I think that the vinegar had a sudden flare up of oxygen for some reason and that is why it had a big bubble of air at the top. I think that the water rusted the nail the most because it had a steady amount of oxygen in the liquid and it was exposed to it over time. I don't think that it would be a very good idea to put your finger in the liquid because it might have increased in acidity by the time you were ready to take the nail out. I also couldn't do proper averages because I didn't have the time to do a second experiment and I would have liked to test different metals but the cost constraint would not allow me  to do that. I also think that it could have made it better by putting two nails in each test tube but I didn’t think of that until the end.

Discussion

I think that the water is the best liquid to rust iron quickly and that vinegar isn't as good as water because water has a steadier oxygen amount. I chose this experiment because I was curious that acid in the vinegar would erode the nails but I found out that water is a better thing to rust iron because it has more oxygen in the water than in the vinegar and oxygen is one of the key components in rusting.

These are some sources I used to get my information.http://www.ehow.com/how-does_4690287_iron-rust.ht

mlhttp://www.sciencenetlinks.com/lessons.php?DocID=

404http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=6

7692

Conclusion