Metal and Acids

Aim: To show that hydrogen gas is produced when a metal reacts with acid.

Equipment: 

• A test tube 
• A boiling tube 
• Bunsen burner 
• Wooden splint 
• A bottle of acid
• A piece of metal
• Safety glasses

Method:  

1. Add your sample of metal to your test tube. Add 2 mL of acids.
2. Carefully invert the boiling tube above the test tube containing the metal and acid.
3. Hold the test tubes together for a few minutes, allowing time for the inverted boiling tube to fill with gas.
4. Light the flaming splint with a lighter.  
5. Carefully, but quickly, tilt the boiling tube full of gas upwards and insert the burning splint into the mouth of the test tube.  

Result: 

As the result, the sound that we heard was "pop!". 

Discussion: 

As the metal is dissolving with the acids we quickly put the other test tube above it so that it won't release any Hydrogen gas. The more we wait for all the H2 to get trap in the tube, we see that it's becoming more grey, which means it is realising H2 ( Hydrogen gas). After a few minutes, we then call our teacher to light our splint, when the splint was on fire we quickly turn over the test tube and put the burning splint inside. The sound that it made was a loud "POP"!.

Conclusion:

I can tell that our experiment works because of the way the test tube made a sound. Maybe next time we will try to cover the tube so that the H2 won't scape, and also the sound will even be louder than we did last time. But anyway I like that experiment.