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NAILS RUSTING! I NEED HELP!

February 18, 2010

An experiment was set up to investigate rusting. Some clean, shiny, iron nails were sealed in a glass bottle containing some tap water. The sealed bottle was then placed on a top-pan balance. The reading on the balance was 549.8 g.
The sealed bottle was left for one week. After one week the nails were rusty.
a. what would you expect the reading on the balance to be after one week?
b. give a reason for your answer.
c. rust is an oxide of iron. Another oxide of iron is iron (III) oxide. Write a word equation for the formation of iron (III) oxide from its elements.
.THNKS! please HELP.I have been trying to do these questions but I am so stuck!

Reynn M.
READING - England

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Hi, Reynn. What does the world "sealed" mean to you? To me it means that no mass can enter or leave.

Regards,

Ted Mooney, P.E.
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey
February 19, 2010

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First of two simultaneous responses --

What Ted is saying, there has been no change in the number of atoms of material, only a change in their combinations.
Next, to write a balanced formula, get a chemistry book and look up the chapter on balancing chemical equations. This is easy to do if you can count to 6. since you want a word equation, be careful of the valence state. There are two sets of nomenclatures that are common to chemistry. pick one and stay with it.

James Watts
- Navarre, Florida
February 22, 2010

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Second of two simultaneous responses -- February 23, 2010

Reynn,

The person to be asking if you are that badly stuck is your teacher, not some anonymous person on a website that you have stumbled across.

Ted has given you a very important clue to part of your question, now you need to get on and do the research. Use the school library, textbooks and your teachers, much more reliable than me...

Brian Terry
Aerospace - Yeovil, Somerset, UK