Science fair project

A. One of the larger items of need in order to get good data is to insure that all of the nails are treated exactly the same. To get a timely rust formation, you will need to use uncoated nails-no paint, glue, zinc or oil and etc. To get a statistical reliability, the number of samples should be as large as possible. While similar, each nail is slightly different in metallurgy, hardness, induced stresses, and physical abuse after manufacture from handling. Uncoated nails will already have a variable amount of rust on them, so getting them identically clean is a challenge. If you get galvanized nails, you will have to do a lot of stripping with acids. It will take less stripping with shiny (electrocoated) nails. Unfortunately, the acid really promotes the formation of rust, so how are they now equal. You should find that size is really a lesser variable. Their alloy, how they were manufactured and post manufacturing handling/environment will be much larger, but those are unknowns to you. It will be an interesting project and that is the important thing. Let us know the outcome.