Post-Laboratory Questions 1. () Explain why it was important to clean each piece
ID: 1010717 • Letter: P
Question
Post-Laboratory Questions 1. () Explain why it was important to clean each piece of metal you used with sandpaper prior to doing the experiment. In the air. .rm inly fv-sucts that are less ren ctive tann (2) What specific problem might you have encountered had you cleaned the metal surfaces witha soft tissue instead? 2. On the basis of your results from this experiment, what observation(s) did you make that would allow you to determine the place H2 would take in your relative activity series? 19Explanation / Answer
1.
(1) It is important to clean the surface of metal used for experiment with sandpaper. The metals tends to oxidize in atmosphere and form an oxide layer on the surface thus making it unreactive further. This is therefore removed first by sandpaper and then used for the reaction.
(2) If instead we use soft tissue to clean the surface of metal, the oxide layer on top remined intact and the metal does not fully react under the reaction conditions. Thus giving us unreliable and incorrect experimental results.
(3) If the metal in experiment is not able to produce H2, the metal is less reactive than Hydrogen. Whereas, If we form hydrogen gas that is the metal is acting as a strong reductant the metal is placed below the hydrogen in the relative series. All the metals above hydrogen in the series acts as oxidizing agent whereas, all the metals below hydrogen acts as reducing agents.