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Topic: home experiment  (Read 11855 times)

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Offline onefear

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Re: home experiment
« Reply #15 on: March 28, 2008, 05:55:55 PM »
ah so the Mg+2 swaps with Cu(II)SO-2 to make Mg+2SO-2 + Cu????

btw i check the test tube it smells like the iodine and sulphur have joined and the metals have sunk to the bottom

AAAAAAAAa so the Mg never reacts with oxygen.
and the potassium reacts with the copper
so then i get potassium oxide and the copper is separate ??

Offline agrobert

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Re: home experiment
« Reply #16 on: March 28, 2008, 10:14:12 PM »
Well Arkcon was doing a good job but you seemed to miss the big picture.  This experiment deals with several things, the reactivity of metals, ionic dissociation, solubility and reactivity.  And sulfate is SO4-2.  Magnesium ribbon is Mg0 not Mg2+.  Please show all your steps sequentially.

Can you write a single replacement reaction?

Also don't smell things unless you know what is going on.

This may help

http://professormeyer.com/images/solubility%20chart.jpg
In the realm of scientific observation, luck is only granted to those who are prepared. -Louis Pasteur

Offline Arkcon

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Re: home experiment
« Reply #17 on: March 28, 2008, 10:18:51 PM »

Also don't smell things unless you know what is going on.


Everything agrobert: says is very important, but I did want to re-iterate this one point.  You high school chemistry book will tell you the proper way to smell chemical reactions, by wafting fumes towards your nose  without inhaling.  Oh, and it explains the other stuff we've mentioned.

Can you write the magnesium and copper sulfate reaction now?
Hey, I'm not judging.  I just like to shoot straight.  I'm a man of science.

Offline MrOHBrown

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Re: home experiment
« Reply #18 on: March 28, 2008, 10:48:03 PM »
To the OP...

Please take your time to explain yourself and get your explanations right. Help will come your way if you patiently and thoroughly explain what's going on.

Please stop writing SO for sulphate... Seriously. It's not how it is written and nobody will understand what you mean.

The initial reaction is a simple reduction-oxidation reaction, Mg is oxidising into Mg2+ and Cu2+ is reducing to Cu.

The reaction for the following would be: Cu2+(aq) + Mg(s) --> Mg2+(aq) + Cu(s)

As for the precipitate? Could it be the insoluble Copper (I) Iodide? It's not green but may appear so in the remaining Cu solution.
Cause we are all made of stars...

Offline onefear

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Re: home experiment
« Reply #19 on: March 29, 2008, 07:43:59 AM »
i know how to smell things properly :D oh and thanks mrOHBrown makes sense now (not all of it yet but gettin there.)
just to let you know our schools so poor we dont have chemistry books just get lectured and write note and that part we havent been taught yet.. i suppose the money goes towards the chemicals not the books i should be glad of that lol
« Last Edit: March 31, 2008, 09:22:42 AM by onefear »

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