TITLE: Rates of Reactions

AIM: To investigate the effect of concentration on the rate of reaction

APPARATUS & MATERIALS:
Magnesium ribbon
Sand (emery) paper
Beakers
Stop clock
Distilled water
Hydrochloric acid

Cut five 3 cm lengths of clean magnesium ribbon (clean with emery paper until shiny if necessary). Pour 50 cm3
of the 2M acid provided, into the beaker, and add one piece of the ribbon. At the same time start the stop-clock.
Note the time taken for the ribbon to disappear completely.
Repeat the procedure with the four remaining pieces of ribbon, adding 40, 30, 20, 10 cm3 of acid respectively,
and make up each solution to 50 cm3, by adding distilled water, before adding the ribbon in each case. Record
the various times and tabulate your results.

(i) Plot a graph of volume of acid used against the time taken for complete dissolution. Plot a second
graph against reciprocal of time (1/T).
(ii) What can you say about the rate of the reaction, with respect to the concentration of the acid, from
your graphs.
(iii) If the beakers were shaken during the reaction, would this have affected the reaction rate? Explain
your answer.
(iv) (a) Why was it necessary to clean the magnesium ribbon to study this particular reaction?
(b) Why was it unnecessary to convert the volume of acid used to molarities, in order to plot the
graph?
(v) (a) What are some sources of error in this experiment?
(b) What factors are constant in this experiment?

Volume of acid (cm3) Volume of water (cm3) Time (sec) 1

(sec-1)
Time
50 0
40 10
30 20
20 30
10 40