Rina Bhudia Science Investigation 10 B3 Mrs Davis
Science Investigation
Displacement Reaction
Aim:
To find out how much heat is given out of a displacement reaction, when using different metals.
Background Knowledge:
Displacement reaction is when one substance forces out another substance and takes it place.
An example of this is when an iron nail is put in a copper sulphate solution. A displacement reaction only occurs when a metal reacts with an acid. This is an exothermic reaction. Exothermic means that the energy is going out of the reaction. Chemical reaction where the energy content of the products is less than that of the reactants; heat is given out from the system. In an exothermic reaction, heat energy is given off to the surroundings so the product molecules have lower heat content than the reactants. This is like taking a wet sponge and squeezing it into a funnel ... the sponge ends up with lower water content than before the "exothermic" reaction. The amount of water which is squeezed into the funnel and collected is a good concrete way to visualize the heat of reaction.
