Nails rusting science project, p.2

A. You may be young to fully understand the answer, Andrea. But rust is iron oxide, a compound that is the reaction product of iron and oxygen. So, if the iron is only one of the two components in the compound, the compound is going to weigh more than one of its two components.

If you are still not quite following this, imagine that you want to decorate for Christmas and you start out with a bowl of green jelly beans. Then you decide that you don't like it all green, so for each green jelly bean in the bowl, you're going to add a red one too. Which weighs more, the green jelly beans (iron) you started with, or all of the jelly beans (iron oxide) in the bowl?

You don't say what grade you are in, Mathew, so I don't know what chemistry concepts you understand yet. Rust is an electrochemical reaction between iron and oxygen. Bleach is sodium hypochlorite, NaOCl, dissolved in a highly conductive mixture of sodium hydroxide (NaOH) and water. The oxygen and chlorine are 'just barely' dissolved, and want to come out as gases, so bleach provides plenty of oxygen for rapid rusting, plus corrosive chlorine, while also providing a very highly conductive path for the corrosion currents to take.

A. Hi, Ashlee. We don't have an FAQ about this rusting nail project, but we do have an FAQ: What Liquid Cleans Pennies Best; although that question is a little bit different, I think you will find it interesting and helpful for your project. Good luck.

Regards,

A. Hi, Mary. We're always happy to try to help. But it seems that what you need this time is proper interaction with your science teacher :-)

You don't convey that you have any idea whatsoever of what science lesson the experiment is supposed to teach you or, even in the most general way how to even begin, either with a how or a why. To just give you rote instructions to follow would make this bad situation even worse. Go to your science teacher and tell him/her that you simply have no idea what you are supposed to be doing or why or what you are supposed to learn from it. S/he will probably be glad to get the feedback and to get you back on track. Of course if you've had the assignment for 4 weeks, and it's due tomorrow . . .   :-)

Regards,

Hi, Eliea. We're happy to try to help if that help will further your education, but . . .

I don't think you understand what you are supposed to be doing or why, so I think you should rewrite your question without using the words 'rust', 'affect'. or 'contaminants'. If you can't do that you need to talk to your teacher because you don't yet understand what you teacher wants, and anybody's guess is just a guess. Good luck.

Regards,

A. Mandy, what could happen is you could splash boiling water on yourself or catch your sleeve on fire. If you can avoid that kind of stuff, you're safe.

Hi, Dona. In my estimation the thing that your son is supposed to be learning is how science is conducted, including the methods and what words & phrases are used in explaining experiments & results. As an adult, you might tend to dismiss it as "obvious", but the routine, and the steps may not have been obvious to your son before he began -- he may be learning a lot very quickly.

For example, the log book or "lab book" is a great piece of learning for him. You number the pages and have him write, in pen, everything he does and everything he sees, along with the date & time. You never erase anything in the lab book. Even if you think an entry is wrong or irrelevant you strike it through once, but keep it legible. Why? Because the lab book contains his procedures and observations. If he sees some oily scum on the surface, he writes that down; if he sees some white powder settling at the bottom, he writes that down. Nothing ever changes his observations, that's why they are in pen. It doesn't matter if the other kids saw no oily scum or if the teacher never saw white powder settling because it is a fact that he did. The lab book is teaching him how to proceed, and to understand the difference between an observation and a theory (or we could say a fact versus an opinion), and the difference between science and 'junk science' ... and it's a fabulous confidence builder because if he saw it and he wrote it down with the date & time in a lab book there's just no questioning it, plus it's also what the real scientists do.

We could all use a refresher in this type of logical thinking. Good luck.

Regards,

A. Hi, Becky. Thank heaven for big sisters; I sure miss mine. See if you can get "masonry nails". These are flat hardened steel and look sort of like long thin wedges more than nails. Get sandpaper and plastic gloves, and sand the surface of these flat nails so you know they are clean. This will leave them prone to rusting. Immediately coat some of them with Vaseline and put them in a bowl of tap water. Put some uncoated ones in a different bowl (so you don't get Vaseline on the uncoated one). Record what happens each day.

After the experiment is done, a week would be a good number of days, look up Cosmoline and its history as a rust preventer.

Regards,

DON'T REELA MATTER WHICH RUSTS A NAIL FASTEST, GRL! MATTERS IS YA LEARN TO TEST IT, AN RIGHT IT ALL DOWN! ANSWER YOU GET IS ANSWER THAT'S WRITE! HOLLERIN CAUSE YA TOL' WE SO!

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Ed. note: Shai's posting isn't great traditional English, but it was understandable. Before criticizing, we should consider whether we express ourselves as clearly as she did. Many times we see good grammar but have no idea what the situation actually is, or what the person is trying to say :-)

A. Hi, Taylor. Get a notebook, number the pages, and get ready to write down everything you do and see in ink, including the date and time. Then ask your mom for 6 cups or preferably glass desert bowls. Get a couple of cans of coke and the 6 items. Put the 6 items in the cups or bowls, cover them with coke. Come back tomorrow and see what you see and write it down. Do the same thing about every day for at least a week. Show the notebook to your teacher and ask him/her what else is needed.

Regards,

A. Hi, Alex. I doubt that the nail will completely disappear, but there will be some corrosion. A flat masonry nail would be best, but try to sand off any coating on whatever nail you use. Honest results are good results.

Regards,