Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

I need assisted on how to locate material on which household liquids will a nail rust the quickest? I need background information to support my experiment.

I have all the liquids need to do the experiment, I just written material to write up my hyposis portion of the experiment. Such as books, magazines, and web links.. I am trying to put today a written portion of the project. How to formulate that portion.

Thanks,

'Kimberly

Hi Kimberly,

Welcome to the Ask an Expert forum! You have a very interesting question!

To help you get started with your background, you can find resources to describe rust and the chemical reaction(s) involved in the rusting process. I typed "rust reaction" into Google, and got lots of great hits. Here are a couple links to help you get started:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rust
http://antoine.frostburg.edu/chem/senes ... usts.shtml

Keep in mind that web pages like Wikipedia often list their references, which will allow you to look up those same books or articles in a library.

Once you understand the chemical reactions that create rust, you can look at your liquids to see whether they might speed up or slow the rusting process. What liquids will you be using in your experiment? What chemicals do they contain, and how might these chemicals affect the rust reaction? Keep in mind that the rust reaction is affected by pH, so the pH of your liquids will also matter. Try looking up the ingredients of each of your liquids, and see if that helps you find information to put into your background section.

Let us know if you have more questions, and please keep us posted on your project!

Good luck,
Heather

Thank you soo much. Your information was a great help and has given me the insight where to start the background reseach.

Now the liquids we have decided to use is Milk, water, orange juice, peroxide, and coke soda.

Do feel I have chosen good household liquids?

Thanks,

Kimberly

Hi,

I think most of those liquids are fine--but you may have a problem with the milk (and maybe the orange juice). If you don't change the milk regularly, it will spoil more quickly than the nail will rust (I think). You'll then have spoiled milk laying around, which won't be much fun.

I would suggest either changing all the liquids every day, or maybe just not doing the milk. Otherwise, I think these are great liquids!

Hi Kimberly,

I agree with Melissa's comments - you have chosen good household liquids!

Your Coke soda and orange juice will be acidic (low pH), so you could also add household bleach (like Clorox) to include a basic (high pH) liquid. Just keep in mind that you should NOT touch bleach with your bare hands - make sure you use latex gloves when working with bleach!

Good luck, and keep us posted on your progress.

Cheers,
Heather

Thanks for all your help and in sight!


I will keep you posted..

Thanks,
Kimberly

good morning.

I am having a little problem determing which is my dependent and indepedent variable....Is the nail independent and the liquid dependent?

Hi Kimberly,

The independent variable is the thing that you (as the scientist) change, and the dependent variable is the change you measure in response to the independent variable. In your case, the thing you are changing (the independent variable) is the liquid in which you put the nail. The thing you are measuring (the dependent variable) is the time it takes for the nail to rust.

There is a great explanation of variables on the Science Buddies website: https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... bles.shtml

Cheers,
Heather