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Rusting of nails

I am in 6th grade and I'm doing a project on the oxidation of nails. I have set up my 36 nails in 36 cups of 6 different substances. The first set of six cups contained bleach ⇦ bleach/sodium hypochlorite in bulk on eBay or Amazon [affil links] , the second set contained water, the third set contained coke, the fourth set contained baking soda [in bulk on eBay or Amazon [affil links] , the fifth set contained hydrochloric acid and the sixth set contained orange juice. I have all of my research and I've done the experiment now I just need to know why the bleach, water, coke, baking soda, and hydrochloric acid made the nails rust(the orange juice did nothing). If you could help me out that would be great!

Brittany H.
Providence Middle School - Chesterfield, VA, U.S.
2005

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You need to look at the chemistry behind your experiment. You used common names for many of your solutions, but what are they, really? Bleach is a weak solution of sodium hypochlorite, for example. Look these things up (search on the web). Look at what iron rust is (iron oxide). What's going on is that the iron is oxidizing...so how do your solutions oxidize iron?

James Totter, CEF
- Tallahassee, Florida
2005