Recently in science we have been learning about chemistry. Chemistry is defined as “the branch of science that deals with the identification of the substances of which matter is composed; the investigation of their properties and the ways in which they interact, combine, and change; and the use of these processes to form new substances.”

This is a mind map of what I knew at the beginning.

Compared to what I learned by the end of the unit. As you can see I learned a lot and that was thanks to the project we did. We were to design an experiment explaining chemical reactions and also test our experiment. We did this in partners and my partner was Claire. At first we wanted to take into the aspect of finding out if there was lead in lipstick. We saw that there was flaws in this though so we changed it to finding out if there is copper in cheap jewelry. Here was our write up:

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Inquiry question:
Is the fake ring made out of copper?

Predications/Hypotheses:
We predict that the ring is made out of copper and we will see that in the experiment because it will react to turn the liquid blue and possibly form a salt.

Chemical equation:
4HNO3(I)+Cus(s)—Cu(NO3)2(s and aq)+2 NO2(g)+2H2O(I)
Copper plus nitric acid makes copper nitrate salt and nitrogen dioxide

Reaction:
The copper nitrate salt that forms is a deep blue color or will just turn the liquid blue. The nitrogen dioxide is a maroon vapor but is only seen if the experiment is done with a very high concentration of nitric acid.

Materials needed:
Copper
Low end ring
Two beakers
Nitric acid

Experimental design:
We first will fill both beakers with nitric acid
We will put the copper in one beaker and observe the reactions
We will record our observations
We will then place the ring in the other beaker
We will observe and record our observations
Compare the copper to the ring
Answer our question
Observation:
Nothing happened at first because the concentration of the nitric acid was low. The copper wire mostly dissolved and the liquid around it turned blue. This is exactly what we predicted would happen to the copper. The copper ring was coated in a thin layer of silver to make it look like real jewelry. The silver reacted with the nitric acid to create silver nitrate, the chemical equation is 3Ag(s)+4HNO3(aq)→3AgNO3(aq)+NO(g)+2H2O(l). The copper in the ring did not react with the nitric acid.

Conclusion:
The copper wire was definitely made out of copper and reacted the way we excepted it to. It can not be confirmed if the ring was made out of copper but we can confirm that the coating is silver.

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We also made a video to show this.

Overall this was an interesting project and I know it will help me in the years to come!