Tuesday 7 May 2013

2.17 explain how experiments involving the reactions of elements such as copper, iron and phosphorus with air can be used to investigate the percentage by volume of oxygen in air

Copper, iron and phosphorus all react with air.
If you know the volume of air that you have, then react it with on of these, then re measure the volume of air; what has been lost is all oxygen that reacted.
This page describes it well:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/science/aqa_pre_2011/oils/changesrev5.shtml

2 comments:

  1. for 2.17, the copper, iron and phosphorus react with the air, but more specifically they react with the oxygen in the air. This means that by reacting one of the metals with the air, the oxygen in the air will be removed allowing you to calculate the volume of oxygen in the air.

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