St Paul’s Convent School
Form 2 Integrated Science Project
Sharon Chan 2S (6)
Selected Video:
Periodic Table/ Metals/ Reactivity Series
Reflection:
This video talks about the discovery and uses of reactive
metals throughout history, and how their uses have defined the
period in which they were discovered, which directly related to
chapter 10 of our textbook, ‘Common Acids and
Alkali---Reactivity of Metals’.
Reactivity metals are the metals which reacted with the
water and the oxygen, leaving hydrogen (H2O) as a product.
Reactivity series is the list of those reactivity metals from the
most reactive to the least reactive. Throughout centuries,
humans gradually discovered different kinds of metals and use
them as weapons, cutleries etc. For example, refer to the video,
ancient people discovered gold (Au) and used it to make the
jewelries since nowadays, which directly changes the manufacturing industry of jewelries. Later,
people discovered copper
(Cu) and tin (Zn) and
improved the quality of
weapons. This shows that
metals are very important
in our life. It not only
improves one country’s
military and economy, but also enhances our
quality of life.
Though metals are very useful, they can be
very dangerous if we don’t handle them carefully.
Usually, we use low or unreactive metals to make
different products like iron, copper, silver etc.
However, highly reactive metals such as sodium,
potassium and calcium can cause serious
explosion and lead to severe deaths and injuries.
Thus, we should probably make use of metals. If
we do not need to use them, we should store them well to prevent them from reaction with the
oxygen and moisture in the air.