GCSE Chemistry for You, Fifth Edition

Answers to End-of-chapter questions

for Chapter 7, Metals and structures

It is very important that you are able to answer the questions on your own, using your
own knowledge of Chemistry.
Have a go at the questions first, and then check your answers using this page.
If you get a question wrong, try to work out where you have made an error.

1. sea; delocalised/mobile; positively; giant; conduct; electrons; high; giant

2. covalent/metallic; metallic/covalent; Ionic; giant; solid; dissolved; ions; metal;

giant; (very) high; molecules; (relatively) low; graphite; metallic

3. a) have high melting and boiling points; good electrical and thermal
conductors’; are hard and dense; can be hammered into shapes (they are malleable);
can be drawn out into wires (they are ductile).
b) e.g. mercury (low melting point; liquid at room temperature); any alkali
metal e.g. lithium, sodium, potassium (low melting point; low density; soft)
c) good electrical and thermal conductors

4. Table of any alloys e.g. steels, containing iron and other elements, used for
machinery, construction, etc.; brass, copper and zinc, door fittings; duralumin,
aluminium and copper, greenhouse frames; solder, lead and tin, joining metals

5. a) Melting the metals and mixing them together, then cooling to solidify the
alloy.

b) i) E.g. drop mass from same height onto a ball-bearing sitting on the
surface of each block of sample being tested, then measuring the diameter of any dent
formed in the surface of the sample. Repeat test at least three times.

ii) E.g. Take rods of the sample being tested and clamp one end to a
bench. Rods should be of same length and diameter. Apply increasing force by
suspending masses from other end of sample (same position) and measuring deflections
from horizontal. Repeat test at least three times.

iii) E.g. Set up identical length and diameters of wire samples, coiled,
in test tubes half full of water. Leave the tubes in the same location and check for signs
of corrosion each day.

c) The alloy would have a greater tensile strength and will be harder than the
pure metals as the layers of metal atoms will not be able to slip over each other as easily
because of the differently-sized metal atoms in the alloy mixture / jamming the layers in
position when compared with the uniform metal atoms in layers of the pure metals.

6. a) D, because it conducts electricity when molten but not when solid, as the
ions in the giant ionic structure then become mobile.

b) A, because metals conduct when solid and when molten because of their
delocalised electrons.

Oxford University Press GCSE Chemistry for You, Fifth Edition © Ryan Books Ltd, 2016   page 1 of 2
GCSE Chemistry for You, Fifth Edition

c) B and C, because they have low melting points as the intermolecular

forces between their molecules are relatively weak.

o
d) B, because it does not melt until the temperature reaches 115 C so it will
o o
be a solid at 20 C, unlike C which melts at -0.5 C.

e) D, as ionic compounds undergo electrolysis at the electrodes (see Chapter

11 for more details)

7. a) Diagram showing sodium with 2 electrons in its 1st shell, 8 electrons in its 2nd
shell and 1 electron in its outermost 3rd shell, magnesium with 2 electrons in its 1st
shell, 8 electrons in its 2nd shell and 2 electrons in its outermost 3rd shell, and
aluminium with 2 electrons in its 1st shell, 8 electrons in its 2nd shell and 3 electrons
in its outermost 3rd shell.
b) sodium donates 1 electron, magnesium donates 2 electrons, and aluminium
donates 3 electrons.
c) For the same number of moles of atoms (positive ions), aluminium will have
three times as many delocalised electrons compared with sodium so more electrons
are available to pass given a point per second in samples of the same dimensions
with the same potential difference / voltage applied.

Oxford University Press GCSE Chemistry for You, Fifth Edition © Ryan Books Ltd, 2016   page 2 of 2