Name: Hailey Miller
Period: 3
Forming the Investigation
Manipulated Variable (I change)
independent
Coating of steel nail
Response Variable (I measure)
dependent
Amount of corrosion/rust
1. What is the question I will answer with this investigation?
Which coating, copper or magnesium, will help to prevent the most amount of rust
from forming on a steel nail over five days, in a moist, air filled environment?
2. Background Information: Several things I already know about this topic, that will
help me to design a successful investigation, are
• A product is a substance produced during a chemical reaction.
• Another name for rust is iron-oxide.
• When iron in steel corrodes it produces rust in a chemical reaction.
• A steel nail with no coating will rust in a moist environment, over five days.
• Rust can be many colors including orange and black.
• Copper is not a very reactive metal because its outer shell is almost full.
• Magnesium is very reactive because it has very few valence electrons.
• Oxygen has 6 valence electrons.
3. Predict in words what I think will happen during my investigation (hypothesis).
Then, use the graph to sketch my predicted results.
I think the magnesium coated nail will produce the least amount of rust over five days,
because it is a very reactive metal. Therefore I think that it will react with oxygen,
instead of the iron reacting with oxygen and less rust will be produced.
1
Name: Hailey Miller
Period: 3
Designing the Investigation
Variables I will keep the same for a fair test:
Amount of moisture in environment
= 5 ML
Temperature of environment = Room Temp
(70 degrees Fahrenheit)
Paper towel
= 3 layers
Number of days left in environment = 5 days
What each nail is made of under coating =
steel
Safety: Do not eat materials. While handling nails, hold by their top (not the sharp
part).
Materials: 1 uncoated steel nail, 1 copper coated steel nail, 1 magnesium coated steel
nail, paper towel, masking tape, petri dish, petri dish cover, scissors, tap water, & a
graduated cylinder
Numbered and detailed procedures with a drawing of my set-up.
1. Gather materials.
2. Fold paper towel into 3 layers.
3. Cut paper towel into a circle, using the petri dish as a guide.
4. Place cut paper towel into petri dish.
5. Measure 5mL of water in a graduated cylinder.
6. Pour the 5mL of water measured in step 5, evenly onto the paper towel inside
the petri dish.
7. Place the uncoated steel nail on the far left of the damp paper towel, making sure
it isn’t touching the petri dish’s side
8. Place the copper coated steel nail on the middle of the damp paper towel making
sure it isn’t touching the uncoated steel nail.
9. Place the magnesium coated nail on the far right of the damp paper towel making
sure it isn’t touching the copper coated nail or the petri dish’s side.
10.
Observe each nail separately and record your findings in the ‘Appearance at
Start of Experiment’ box. (Record.)
11.
Place the petri dish cover over the petri dish and seal it by placing masking
tape all around the edge of where the petri dish and its cover meet.
12.
Let the petri dish sit for five days.
13.
Un-tape the petri dish and remove the cover.
14.
Observe each nail separately, comparing it to its appearance at the start of
the experiment and record your findings in the ‘Appearance After 5 Days’ box.
(Record.)
15.
Rate the coating on how well it prevented rust based on the rating scale
below. (Record.)
2
Name: Hailey Miller Period: 3
16.
Write a conclusion about your coating in the ‘Conclusion’ box. (Record.)
Rating
0
Description
All rust prevented. No rust or discoloring
on nail.
Nail color has started to fade. No rust
showing to the naked eye. May be specks
of rust when looking under dissecting
scope.
Rust is visible to naked eye. Not a ton of
rust, yet not just a couple of specks. Color
of nail is very faded.
A lot of rust formed. Rust bled or seeped
onto moist paper towel.
1
2
3
3
Name: Hailey Miller
17.
Period: 3
Collecting and Presenting Data
Corrosion of a Steel Nail in a Moist Environment over a Five Day Period
Coating
None
Copper
Magnesium
Appearance of Nail
at the Start of the
Experiment
-Shiny
-Silver
-No corrosion or
rust.
Appearance After
Experiment
-Long strip of
orange rust.
-Rust seeping onto
paper towel.
-Excessive amounts
of rust visible to the
naked eye.
-Rust mostly on
bottom of nail.
-No rust
-No color
change/fading
-No rust visible to
naked eye, yet one
or two specks
visible under
dissecting scope.
-Color is faded
-Quite a few (8-15)
small specks of rust
visible to naked eye
under magnesium.
-Shiny
-Copper colored
-Scratches on both
sides
-No corrosion or
rust.
-Shiny
-Silver
-Some Speckles
-No corrosion or
rust.
4
Rating (based on
rating scale above)
3
0
1.5
Name: Hailey Miller
Period: 3
Analyzing and Interpreting Results
Question: (from p. 1)
Which coating, copper or magnesium, will help to prevent the most amount of rust from forming
on a steel nail over five days, in a moist, air filled environment?
Introductory Sentence: In this experiment, I observed copper and magnesium coating on steel
nails, over five days in a moist environment to find which prevents rusting the best.
5
Name: Hailey Miller Period: 3
1. Evidence
In our investigation of whether copper or
magnesium prevents the most
rusting/corrosion on a steel nail, we
found that the copper coating prevented
the most amount of rust on a steel nail,
over five days, in a moist environment.
2. Explanation:
The reason we got the results we did
was because copper is not very reactive.
This is because a copper atom has 9
valence electrons making it more stable
and less reactive to the oxygen or
moisture. However, magnesium only has 2
valence electrons, which it desperately
wants to give away to have a full outer
shell, making it highly reactive. The
magnesium does prevent some iron-oxide
because it sacrifices itself and corrodes
before the iron, yet it doesn’t prevent all
of the iron-oxide production, definitely
not as much as copper. Overall, copper
prevented the most iron-oxide because its
stability protected itself from corroding
and since it was entirely covering the iron
there was no way for iron-oxide to form.
For example, copper got a rating of 0
based on the rating scale above, meaning
that it prevented all iron-oxide(rust)
(except one or two specks seen under
dissecting scope) from forming on the
steel nail. The magnesium however got a
rating of 1½, meaning that after the period
of five days, specks of iron-oxide (rust)
were visible and the color and shine of
the nail was slightly faded.
3. Problems
There were the following problems during
the investigation….
One problem that occurred was that
because the magnesium was just a small
strip wrapped around the steel nail, it may
have not fully sealed the nail from the
elements around it (water & oxygen)
causing the magnesium to not prevent iron
oxide from forming to its full ability.
4. Conclusion
In conclusion, our results show that
copper coating prevented the most
amount of iron-oxide from forming, over
a five day period, in a moist environment,
based on it’s rating of zero compared to
magnesium coating’s rating of 1½.
A future experiment or revision we could
do is
to cover a steel nail in melted magnesium
(instead of just a strip of magnesium) to
make the results more accurate by
placing each nail in the same amount and
condition of coating. We could then
compare the results of the experiment
This would have caused our data to
show that magnesium had less iron-oxide
prevention ability and could’ve caused the
rating of magnesium coating to be too
high (otherwise saying that magnesium
6
Name: Hailey Miller Period: 3
isn’t as effective as copper at preventing
iron-oxide).
just completed and the revision of the
experiment, seeing if the results differed.
Therefore testing the accuracy of the
experiment completed.
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