5. Turn the burner on and let the solution in the beaker boil for a few minutes.
6. Take out the pennies with the tongs and let it dry and cool down.
7. Then take a penny with the tongs and put it over the lit burner until it changes color.
IV. Observations:
When this demonstration was done I saw many things happen. When the water was heated it didn't take much time to boil. The pennies that were inside the beaker, when finished boiling, came out with a silver color. After heat was applied to the silver pennies they turn to another color, gold.
V. Science laws, principles, or theories:
Something that I have found is that in this demonstration chemical and heat reactions occured. I also found that gold does not oxidize or is it greatly affected by acidic solutions.
VI. Conclusion:
In conclusion, I say that the pennies were not really turned into gold, but has a brass covering. It only turned gold in color. Also it turned silver in color because there was a zinc covering over the penny. When copper is mixed with zinc it turns into brass. The copper and zinc were mixed by a heat reaction. If this was really gold the pennies will then not oxidize or be greatly affected by acidic solutions.
Alchemy: Making Gold
Khen Lam
Monday, September 24, 2001
411
Khen Lam
Monday, September 24, 2001
Book #. 411
Lab
Title:
"Making Gold"
In order to tell if any gold is real you would have test it.
One way is by:
1. Getting a smooth marble-like stone called a testing stone.
2. Then rub the gold against it. It should leave a mark on the stone.
3. Drip a gold testing acid on the stone where the gold mark is. If it dissolve its not gold.
The acid is made of nitric acid. Gold is not greatly affected by acid.
The second way is to leave it in water for a long time. If it rust it is not gold. Gold cannot rust or oxidize.
