Group Members:

FACTORS THAT Daniela Murcia

Francesca Useche
AFFECT RUSTING Camila Pedraza

Research Question:
How does the presence of salt in water in a cup where an iron nail is placed affects its
rusting rate?

Objective:
The objective of this experiment is to test if the salt is a factor that affects rusting, in
this experiment we want to measure the rate of rusting in different iron nails placed in
different test tubes with water and different amounts of salt.

Hypothesis:
As the amount of salt increases, the rusting rate in the iron nail also increases, because
salt water is an electrolyte that conducts ions which speeds up rusting.

Introduction:
Rusting is a chemical process that can take place in metals exposed to the atmosphere.
(Not all metals however rust) Iron is a common metal where rusting occurs. When some
metals are exposed to atmospheric conditions, for example, oxygen, carbon dioxide
forms an undesirable compound on the surface, which could also be known as
corrosion (however, corrosion can occur in non-metals and metals, different from
rusting that only takes place in metals), the compounds formed are usually oxides.

Word Equation:
In this experiment the final result or reaction involved is rusting, which is the combination of iron
(Fe) + oxygen (O2) --> obtaining: Iron oxide or using symbols,
→
The equation for rust will be 4Fe + 3O2 + 6H20 4Fe(OH)3. The chemical formula is Fe2O3 and
it's usually known as ferric oxide or iron.
- The coefficients and subscripts are the number that indicate the number of time that an element
or compound must be count and how many atoms there are in each element or compound.

Variables:
Control: Independent: Dependent:
- Same amount of water - Amount of salt added to the - Rusting rate
- Same type of Iron Nail water.
- Same type of Containers
Method:
1. In each plastic cup, pour a cup of water (200ml)
2. An iron nail is placed in each glass separately
3. Different amounts of salt are put into the different cups (one of them does not
contain salt, the others have 1, 2 and 3 tablespoons)
4. All glasses are left in the temperature room, for a duration of 8 days (they are
constantly observed every day)
5. Results are obtained based on the observation

Materials:
- Water
- Measuring Cup
- 4 containers
- 4 Iron Nails of the same type
- A weight
- A tablespoon

Set Up:

0 Tbs 1 Tbs 2 Tbs 3 Tbs

Results:

0 Tbs 1 Tbs 2 Tbs 3 Tbs

Observations:
After waiting some days while leaving iron nails in water with different amounts of
salt, we noticed that the iron nail placed in the water with the greater amount of salt
was the one that rusted the most, this iron nail also left a stain in the container with a
dark orange color, we also noticed that the iron nail placed in the container with
water and no salt had a cleaner and more transparent water than the water with the
grater amount of salt.
Table:

Graph:

Analysis of Method:
The method that we are using to see if salt affects oxidation is effective but you can
change it to make it reliable. This experiment is an at-home experiment this means that
there are not proper lab tools and the experiment is not under controlled
circumstances, also there are many factors that could affect the experiment like the
type of salt and the ph of water are not controlled, to improve this we suggest that this
experiment is applied in a lab where you can control all the variables, we also suggest
using the same type of equipment for the test tubes and last we suggest to control
more certain variables like type of salt. This is to make sure this experiment is reliable.
Answer of Research Question:
The presence of salt in water in a cup where an iron nail is placed affects the rusting
rate of the iron nail by increasing the rusting rate, so as the amount of salt in the water
increases, the rusting rate increases, this happens because salt water acts as an
electrolyte allowing the iron nail to lose electrons speeding up the rusting process.

Analysis Questions:
In the experiment to test how salt affects the rate of rusting in an iron nail, we are
changing a variable, in this case, it is the amount of salt in the water, we are
changing this variable by adding different amounts of salt in the cup of water where
we place an iron nail, the method that we are using to increase the amounts of salt in
each cup are adding one more tablespoon of salt to the next cup, leaving the first
cup with 0 tablespoons of salt, the second cup with 1 tablespoon of salt, the third
cup with 2 tablespoons of salt, and the fourth cup with 3 tablespoons of salt. To
measure the rusting rate in a more precise way than with observations, we weighted
the iron nails before and after leaving the iron nail some days in the saltwater, then
we took the weight of the iron nails after leaving them some days in the saltwater and
before leaving the iron nails in the saltwater, and we subtract them leaving for a result
the rusting rate in each iron nail. For this experiment, we controlled some variables
with the objective of making a reliable test, these variables that we controlled were
the Amount of Water per cup, The size of the cups, and The Type of Nail placed in the
different cups.

Conclusion:
The results obtained support the hypothesis since it is shown that in the case of
quantities of salt, the more tablespoons of salt cause a higher level of rusting, we know
that water as such can also affect the level of rusting that an iron nail has but in this
experiment the nails are exposed to saltwater so if there is moisture, oxygen, and salt,
the metal tends to rust much faster, plus water helps iron react with oxygen by breaking
up the oxygen molecules.