Experiment 1 • Experiment 2 & 3 • Experiment 4

Experiment 5
In this experiment you will determine two things.
1) Do dull dirty pennies dissolve slightly in a vinegar salt solution?
2) Do nails soaked in a vinegar, salt and dissolved Copper coat a nail with a thin film of Copper?

You can compare the results of this experiment to determine whether or not a nail used by the thief had been exposed to a mixture of vinegar, salt and dissolved Copper.

I] Hypothesis
1) Tiny amounts of Copper Oxide and Copper will dissolve from the surface of dull, dirty pennies making them shiny and new looking when placed in a vinegar salt solution.

2) Nails soaking in the same solution that was used to soak the pennies will cause a thin film of Copper to adhere to the surface of the nail.

 

II] Materials needed

• 12 dull, dirty pennies
• 1/4 cup (60 milliliters) white vinegar
• 1 teaspoon (5 milliliters) salt
• A clear, shallow bowl (not metal)
• 3 clean steel nails (not galvanized or coated)
• Paper towels


III] Procedure

  1. Put the salt and vinegar in the bowl. Stir until the salt dissolves.
  2. Dip one penny halfway into the liquid. Hold it there for about 10 seconds, then pull it out. What do you see?
  3. Dump all the pennies into the liquid. You can watch them change for the first few seconds. After that you won't see anything happen. After 5 minutes, take half of the pennies out of the liquid. Put them on a paper towel to dry.
  4. Take the rest of the pennies out of the liquid. Rinse them really well under running water, and put them on a paper towel to dry. Write "rinsed" on the second paper towel.
  5. Lean the nails against the side of the bowl so that only part of it is in the liquid.
  6. After 20 minutes, take a look at the nails. Are the leaning nails two different colors? Leave the nails in the bowl overnight and check on them again in the morning. Do the nails in your bowl look like the nail that described that was used to post the note to the oorgave cactus?

 

 

 
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