1. Why does Zinc vary in weight when mixed with other elements? By: Erika Dunkle

2. The experiment that I conducted consisted of weighing Zinc before putting it into the solution and after being added to the solution. The procedure started by weighing the pieces of Zinc on the scale and placing them into the slotted tray. Then I added one of the four solutions to the Zinc and waited for about 40 minutes. They were then taken out and left to air dry overnight. The following day I removed them from slotted tray, weighed them and wrote down the results. The reason I decided on performing this experiment is because I was interested to find out what would happen to the Zinc. I wondered how it would react with the solution and if it would make the metal heavier or lighter or would stay the same weight.

3. Balanced chemical reaction of Zinc in CuSO4 solution is Cu2+(aq) + Zn(s) -> Zn2+(aq) + Cu(s) Did It React?Weight BeforeWeight AfterSolution No0.48g.0.46g.ZnCl 2 Yes0.61g.0.60g.CuSO 4 No0.49g.0.47g.FeSO 4 No0.67g.0.65g.Mg(NO 3 ) 2 I gathered the data by weighing the Zinc the first day and letting it sit in the solution, then weighing it again once it dried. The patterns that I noticed are that all of them went down in weight even if they did not react. The only combination that did react went down one gram in weight and the others went down two grams in weight.

4. My Conclusion I found out what I hypothesized was not accurate. Usually when you mix two things together they get heavier, but as it turns out the Zinc got lighter every time. I also think the reason they got lighter was because the atoms in the piece of Zinc escaped and therefore made it lighter instead of heavier. An idea that would be further testable would be to weigh other metals before and after and put them in a couple different solutions. It would be interesting to see if that idea holds true for all metals or only Zinc.