Investigate the rate of reaction with magnesium and different concentrations of hydrochloric acid - Plan

The magnesium has to be sanded to remove any oxide on the ribbon.  This improves a fair test.  The hydrochloric acid must be handled safely as it is hazardous.  The pipe connecting the gas syringe and beaker together should not have any holes from previous use as the results will not be reliable.

Strategy:

Now the apparatus is set out, the hydrochloric acid has to be measured preciously to 30 cm3.  The hydrochloric acid must be measured preciously because the tests won’t be reliable.  Next, the hydrochloric acid is poured into the beaker.  Once the hydrochloric acid is in the beaker, one person checks the time (every 10 sec.) and the volume of hydrogen produced.  The other person puts the magnesium ribbon (which is folded into eight sections to provide a large surface area) into the hydrochloric acid.  To ensure no hydrogen escapes, the person must check whether there are any leaks around the top of the beaker, which leads to reliable results.  Finally, once the experiment has finished (there are three results at the end that are the same) and the results are all recorded, the beakers have to be washed properly with water (this prevents contamination).  The hydrogen in the gas syringe has to be pushed out (if this is not done, the results of the next experiment will not be reliable).  These steps have to be repeated every time a different concentration of hydrochloric acid is added or the experiment has to be re-taken as the results do not look reliable.

Fair Test:

Prediction:

I predict the more amount of concentration, the faster the reaction and the more amount of hydrogen produced.  I think the reaction is going to be faster and more hydrogen will be produced because the particles are crowded and will collide with each other more often, resulting in an increased number of successful collisions per second.