Planner Scientific enquiry

7F.1 Chemical reactions

You should already know Outcomes Keywords

In a chemical reaction, new substances are made.

Chemical reactions happen everywhere:
• when you cook food;
• when plants grow;
• inside your body to keep you alive.
If you cook an egg, the substances in it change into new
substances. It is an example of a chemical reaction. A raw egg in a pan.

Question 1

What else happens in a chemical reaction

Other things can happen in a chemical reaction apart from
getting a new substance. You can get:
The cooked egg is hard and
• a colour change – this happens when iron rusts; tastes different too.
• heat;
• a change of pH.
Iron (a metal).

Potassium reacting with water.

Rust. dropper containing

universal indicator

When potassium is put onto water, it produces hydrogen gas.

The reaction produces enough heat to make the hydrogen burn.
If you test the water after the potassium has reacted with it, you
find a change of pH from neutral to alkaline.

The indicator turns purple, which

Question 2 shows that the solution is alkaline.

80 7F Simple chemical reactions

 7F.1 Chemical reactions
Burning
When something burns, it reacts with the oxygen in the air.
New substances are formed.
Burning is a chemical reaction.
One of the new substances formed is usually called an oxide.
The oxide formed when natural gas burns is called carbon dioxide.

Question 3

Magnesium
(a metal).
Burning natural gas in air.

Magnesium
oxide.

When magnesium burns, it reacts with the oxygen in the air.

It makes a new substance called magnesium oxide.
Magnesium oxide is a white, powdery solid.
When carbon burns, it produces a gas called carbon dioxide.
Not all oxides are solids.

Carbon dioxide.

Carbon (a non-metal).

Question 4

7F Simple chemical reactions 81

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7F.2 Reactions between acids and metals (HSW)

You should already know Outcomes Keywords

The pictures show an experiment.

The experiment is a chemical reaction. hydrochloric acid

• Magnesium reacts with hydrochloric acid.

• A gas is produced.
• The gas is hydrogen. It is a new substance.
• The magnesium gradually gets smaller. It disappears.
• This is called corrosion. bubbles

To see the new substance, called magnesium chloride, you leave gas collects
magnesium in test tube
the tube open for a few days.
• The solution evaporates.
• Solid magnesium chloride is left behind.
hydrochloric acid

hydrogen gas evaporation

escaping

zinc chloride
zinc solution
magnesium

dilute crystals of
hydrochloric acid magnesium
chloride

In the experiment, magnesium and hydrochloric acid react

together. We call them reactants.
The new substances produced are hydrogen and magnesium
chloride. We call them products.

Question 1 2

82 7F Simple chemical reactions

 7F.2 Reactions between acids and metals
When a metal reacts with an acid: pour
ca

• one of the products is hydrogen;

re
fu
lly
• the other new material is called a salt.
To make the salt called magnesium chloride, you react magnesium
with hydrochloric acid. The diagram shows you the steps.
• Add more magnesium than you need to make sure all the acid is
used up. filter off

• Leave it until the reaction has finished. This is when it stops magnesium
left over after
magnesium

producing a gas. adding it

•
to acid
Filter off the left over magnesium.
• The products are water and magnesium chloride.
• The magnesium chloride is dissolved in the water so you need boil off about
half the water
to evaporate it to get the salt magnesium chloride.

Metal Acid Salt

magnesium hydrochloric acid magnesium chloride let it

cool
zinc hydrochloric acid zinc chloride

iron hydrochloric acid iron chloride crystals of a salt called

magnesium chloride
Different combinations of metals and hydrochloric acid make different salts.

Zinc chloride gets its first name from zinc because it was the
metal used. It gets its second name from the acid used, which was
hydrochloric acid.

Question 3 4

The test for hydrogen gas is shown in the picture. pop

Hydrogen gas makes a squeaky pop when it burns.
You need to put a lit splint near the mouth of the test tube.
Hydrogen gas is a lot lighter than air. You need to keep a finger or
thumb over the test tube to trap the gas before you test it.
If you let the hydrogen escape, there will be none to test!
hydrogen + oxygen water

Question 5 Testing hydrogen gas with a

lighted splint.

7F Simple chemical reactions 83

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7F.3 Reactions between acids and carbonates

You should already know Outcomes Keywords

Many of the rocks in the Earth contain substances called

carbonates.
You can test a rock to see whether it has carbonates in it. You
put acid on the rock. If there are carbonates in it, it will fizz and
produce a gas.
The gas is called carbon dioxide.
The top picture shows a rock called limestone in some acid.
It is producing carbon dioxide gas when it reacts with the acid.
Chalk is another rock made from calcium carbonate. When you
put acid on chalk there is a reaction. Carbon dioxide is produced.

Question 1 2
Limestone is made of calcium
carbonate.
The air contains some carbon dioxide. People increase the amount
of carbon dioxide in the air by:
• travelling on an aircraft;
• using a car;
• using electricity.
Carbon dioxide reacts with rainwater to make a
very weak acid. This is called acid rain.
Over years and years, acid rain can damage
buildings.
Some buildings are made from limestone.
These are damaged when the acid rain reacts
with the limestone.
The photographs show the effect on York Minster.
After years of weak acid attacking the limestone,
it needs to be restored to what it was like when it
was built. Stonework on York Minster before (left) and
after (right) restoration.

Question 3

84 7F Simple chemical reactions

 7F.3 Reactions between acids and carbonates
Carbon dioxide is an important gas. It is produced when:
• acid reacts with carbonates;
• things burn;
• living things respire, which is all the time!
The test for carbon dioxide is different from the test for hydrogen.
If you bubble carbon dioxide through lime water, the lime water
goes cloudy. Carbon dioxide is the only gas that does this.
When you breathe out, your breath
contains more carbon dioxide carbon dioxide
than the air you breathe in. This is (from your lime water
breath)
because the cells in your body make
Carbon dioxide makes lime
carbon dioxide as part of the living
water go cloudy.
processes called respiration.
You can test this with a straw
and some lime water. If you blow lime water

through the lime water with a straw, white clouds form as

it will go cloudy. gas bubbles through

Question 4 5

Using carbonates at home

To make light fluffy cakes, you need to get small bubbles inside part of cake,
magnified
the cake as it cooks. One way of doing this is to use a substance
called baking powder.
Baking powder is a mixture of two white powders called tartaric
acid and sodium bicarbonate. They don’t react when they are dry.
carbon
When you use baking powder in a cake, it produces small bubbles dioxide
of carbon dioxide gas. gas

As the cake cooks, the trapped bubbles get bigger and make the
cake light and fluffy.
Another way of doing the same thing is to
use self-raising flour in a cake. This is flour
that has some baking powder already added
bake
to it so that it will make carbon dioxide
bubbles in the cake mixture. baking powder
in the cake mix
cake

Question 6 7 Check your progress

7F Simple chemical reactions 85

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7F.4 Burning and fossil fuels (HSW)

You should already know Outcomes Keywords

Fuels
We burn some substances because they produce heat.
We call them fuels.
You need three things to make a fire:
• a fuel;
• oxygen from the air;
• heat to get the fuel burning.
When the fire is lit, it produces light and more heat.
The three things needed for a fire are like the sides
of a triangle.
When you take away one of the sides, the fire
goes out.
The triangle is called the Fire-fighters use water to cool substances.
fire triangle.
heat air

fuel

Question 1 2

Coal, oil and petrol are called fossil fuels. They contain a lot of
carbon and its compounds.
They come from the remains of plants and animals that died
millions of years ago.
Burning fossil fuels increases the level of carbon dioxide in
the air.
Natural gas is a common fossil fuel.
The chemical name for natural gas is methane.
This is the gas used in Bunsen burners and domestic cookers.
Burning natural gas in air.
Question 3 4

86 7F Simple chemical reactions

 7F.4 Burning and fossil fuels
Wax is a fuel
flame
A candle uses wax as its fuel. Wax is a solid. It has to be turned
into a gas before it will burn. wax vapour
molten
Another word for the gas you get from heating something is wax

a vapour.
When you light a candle:
wick
• the heat from the flame melts the wax;
• the wick soaks up the molten wax;
• the flame turns the molten wax into wax vapour;
• the wax vapour mixes with air and burns;
• this produces carbon particles that glow yellow in the heat;
• as more air mixes in, the carbon also burns.
You can put a candle out by covering it with a jar.
The candle burns for about half a minute. The flame then gets
weaker and goes out.
The candle goes out because it has used up the oxygen inside the
jar and produced carbon dioxide.

At first, the candle After about 20 seconds, After about 30 seconds,

continues to burn. the candle is still burning. the candle goes out.

The jar is full of air to start with. Air 1% other gases (mainly argon)
21% oxygen
is a mixture of gases. There is 21%
oxygen, which is used in the burning There is also
reaction, and the rest is mostly nitrogen a very small
amount of
with a little bit of carbon dioxide and carbon dioxide.
argon. Nitrogen, carbon dioxide and
argon do not take part in burning. If
there is no oxygen or if oxygen cannot What’s in the air.
get to a flame then it will go out. 78% nitrogen
Review your work

Question 5 6 Summary

7F Simple chemical reactions 87

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[Link] You don’t always get what you want

You should already know Outcomes Keywords

Measuring how fast a reaction happens

If you add magnesium to dilute acid, hydrogen gas
is produced. The hydrogen gas will push the syringe
back in the diagram. You can measure how much gas is hydrogen gas
gas syringe
produced at different times in the experiment.
You might get a set of results like those in the table.
Just by looking at the results in the table, you can see dilute acid
something important. After 4 minutes, the reaction magnesium ribbon
has finished.

Question 1 2

To look at the results more carefully you must plot a graph. The
graph is shown below the table. Time Total volume of
(minutes) gas produced (cm3)
Volume of hydrogen gas produced in cm3

90 reaction is slowing reaction is over

80
down here 0 0
no more gas is
70
produced now
0.5 15
60
50 1 30
40 1.5 38
30
20 reaction is fast 2 60
at the start
10
2.5 70
0 1 2 3 4 5
3 76
Time in minutes
3.5 79
There is a surprising result at 1.5 minutes. The volume of gas
produced does not fit into the pattern. This result could be a 4 80
mistake or an error. It is called an anomalous result. 4.5 80
The graph helps you spot anomalous results. 5 80
When scientists get unexpected results like this, they go back and
check them.

Question 3 4

88 7F Simple Chemical Reactions

 [Link] You don’t always get what you want
Surprising results are not always wrong
Sometimes the result of an experiment is surprising but not
an error. crucible

If you do the experiment shown in the diagram, you will get a

surprising result. coil of magnesium
ribbon
After the magnesium has burned, the ash left is heavier than the
magnesium was to start with! heat

This type of observation was made in 1772 by the French chemist When we heat magnesium
Antoine Lavoisier. At the time, everyone thought the ashes from in air, we have to lift the lid to
allow oxygen in.
something that burned should be lighter because:
• ashes are usually smaller than the substance that burned;
• flames have been seen escaping from the substance – it looks
like something has left the original material.
Lavoisier worked out that the ashes being heavier was not a
mistake. He did experiments for years with different substances to
test his ideas. In 1779 he proposed that, when something burned,
it combined with a gas that was in the air. This explained why the
ash was heavier. Burning was not something escaping from the
substance. It was something combining with it.
He worked out that the part of the air taking part in burning was
the part we use up in respiration. He gave it the name oxygen.

Question 5

Accidental discoveries with sweet results Antoine Lavoisier lived during the
French Revolution. It was a time
Sometimes a scientist discover something by accident. when many old ideas and theories
were challenged.
In 1879, Ira Rensen and Constantin Fahlberg accidentally
discovered a substance called saccharin.
Saccharin is 300 times sweeter than sugar and it does not make
you put on weight like sugar does. We use it today as an artificial
sweetener
Fahlberg claimed he spilt the substance on his hand and
accidentally licked it. Rensen claimed he forgot to wash his hands
after work and noticed a bread roll he was eating later tasted very
sweet. We don’t know which of them is telling the truth. In any
case, the discovery of saccharin as a sweetener was not planned!

Question 6

7F Simple Chemical Reactions 89

 7F Questions

7F.1
1 Give an example of a chemical reaction.
2 What does the reaction between potassium and water produce?
3 What gas in the air does a substance combine with when it burns?
4 What gas does carbon produce when it burns?

7F.2
1 What is the name of the gas produced in the reaction between
magnesium and hydrochloric acid?
2 Describe what you see when magnesium corrodes in an acid.
3 Which metal is used to make zinc chloride?
4 Which acid is used to make iron chloride?
5 If you hold a flame near the open end of a test tube of hydrogen,
what will happen?

7F.3
1 Which gas is produced when acid is put on a carbonate?
2 What is the name of the carbonate in limestone and chalk?
3 What type of substance is produced when carbon dioxide dissolves
in rainwater?
4 Describe the test for carbon dioxide.
5 Why does lime water go cloudy when you breathe into it?
6 What gas does baking powder produce?
7 How does baking powder help in making cakes?

90 7F Simple Chemical Reactions

 7F Questions

7F.4
1 What is the name for something that burns to produce heat?
2 What three things must you have present to keep a fire burning?
3 What is a fossil fuel? Give some examples.
4 What is the chemical name for natural gas?
5 Why does the candle under the beaker go out?
6 Name some of the gases in the mixture we call air.

[Link]
1 How can you tell from the results table that the reaction has finished
after 4 minutes?
2 If the experiment makes more than 100 cm3 of gas, the glass plunger
of the syringe might fall out. What is the hazard if this happens.
What could you do to reduce the hazard?
3 Which of the results is anomalous?
4 If your experiment produced an anomalous result like the one
shown, what could you do about it?
5 Find out the key facts about Lavoisier and produce a short
presentation about him using ICT.
6 Find out the E number that is given to saccharine and draw up a list
of common foods you can buy in the supermarket that contain it.

7F Simple Chemical Reactions 91

7F Summary

Keywords

Key ideas
• In a chemical reaction, new substances • Your body makes carbon dioxide
are produced. through the process of respiration.

• Substances that are used up in a • When something burns, it reacts

chemical reaction are called reactants. with oxygen.

• The oxide of a substance is made when

• Substances that are made during a a substance burns.
chemical reaction are called products.
• Fuels release energy when they burn.
• Hydrogen is produced when an acid
• A fire needs oxygen from air, fuel and
reacts with a metal. The metal is used
heat to burn. We show this as a fire
up. We call this corrosion.
triangle.
• When a metal and an acid react, they • Fossil fuels come from the remains of
produce a salt as well as hydrogen. plants and animals that died millions of
years ago.
• We test for hydrogen using a lighted
splint. You hear a pop if there is • Fossil fuels produce carbon dioxide and
hydrogen. water when they burn.

• An acid reacts with a carbonate to

• Coal, oil and petrol are examples of
fossil fuels.
produce new substances. One of these
is carbon dioxide. • Methane is an example of a fossil fuel.
Its common name is natural gas.
• We use lime water to test for carbon
dioxide. It is the only gas that turns • Carbon dioxide reacts with rainwater to
lime water cloudy. make acid rain.

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