REACTIVITY OF A METAL AND WHEN IT WAS DISCOVERED?

By: Barbara Giesteira

THE REACTIVITY SERIES

This is the reactivity series going from the least to the most reactive. Not all

metals are included in this list.

Rubidium Potassium Sodium Calcium Magnesium Aluminium Zinc Iron Tin Copper Silver Gold

The Reactivity Series is a way of organizing metals in a series from the most reactive to the least reactive.

THE CONNECTION

The connection between how reactive the metal is and when it was discovered is that that the less reactive the metal is, the earlier it was discovered and the more reactive the metal is, the later it was discovered. So if a metal was discovered a long time ago, the metal is not reactive. If the metal was discovered later is because the metal is reactive.

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WHY?

The reactive metals likes making compounds with other things. The less reactive metals are more likely to find it as an element in an uncombined form. The earliest metals to be discovered were generally those that were uncombined in the ground or very easy to separate from the compounds they were found in. So the least reactive metals were first to be discovered. The most reactive metals were not discovered for thousands more years because they are only found in compounds, never as the metals themselves and are very difficult to extract from their ores.

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GOLDGold was discovered a long time ago, it

wasdiscovered around 5000BC. The person

whodiscovered it is unknown because it was along time ago they discovered gold.

http://www.gold-prices.biz/silverado-gold-mines-ltd-gold-update-05-august-2006/

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SILVERSilver was also discovered around 5000BC.The person who discovered is unknownbecause silver was discovered a long timeago so they don’t know who discovered it.

http://girlfriendsgospel.wordpress.com/2009/01/16/silver-gold-antimony-whats-antimony/

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COPPER

Copper was discovered around 3500BC. The

person who discovered is unknown because

the person who discovered made thediscovery a long time ago so they don’t

knowwho is it.

http://bildungblog.blogspot.com/2009_09_27_archive.html

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TIN

Tin was discovered around 3000BC. Theperson who discovered is unknown

becauseit was discovered a long time ago.

http://1501bc.com/bronzeage/nf_bronze_eng.html 1

IRON

Iron was discovered around 2000BC. Iron wasdiscovered early because iron is not veryreactive. The person who discovered isunknown because it was discovered a longtime ago.

http://scrapetv.com/News/News%20Pages/usa/pages-3/Parents-arrested-after-making-child-eat-iron-weights-Scrape-TV-The-World-on-your-side.html

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ZINC

Zinc was discovered around 1746. Zinc wasdiscovered by a German scientist namedAndreas Margraf.

http://www.quashme.com/quash-ingredients-zinc.html

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ALUMINIUM

Aluminum was discovered around 1825.Aluminium was discovered by a Danish Scientist and physicist named Hans Christian.

http://images-of-elements.com/aluminium.php 1 4

MAGNESIUM

Magnesium was discovered in 1808. Magnesium was discovered by a British chemist named Sir Humphry Davy.

http://www.unitednuclear.com/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=16_17_69

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CALCIUMCalcium was discovered in 1808 Calcium.

It was also discovered by Sir Humphrey Davy.

http://detail.en.china.cn/provide/detail,1065697540.html

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SODIUM

Sodium was discovered in 1807. It wasdiscovered by Sir Humphry Davy.

http://www.webelements.com/sodium/

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POTASSIUM

Potassium was discovered in 1807.Potassium was also discovered by the

Britishscientist Sir Humphry Davy.

http://chemistry.about.com/od/elementgroups/ig/Alkali-Metals-Photo-Gallery/Potassium-Metal.-dvh.htm

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RUBIDIUMRubidium was discovered in 1860.

Rubidiumwas discovered by the German chemists

RobertBunsen and Gustav Kirchoff.

http://wiki.chemeddl.org/index.php/PTL:Rubidium

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WHY SOME METALS TOOK MORE TIME TO BE DISCOVERED?

I think the less reactive metals were find earlier because they areeasier to extract because they are not combined with differentcompounds. I think the more reactive metals took more time tobe discovered because they are harder to extract and because theynormally are combined with different compounds. So when a metalis higher in the reactivity series it took more time to bediscovered because it is harder to extract and when the metal islow in the reactivity series it was discovered a long time agobecause they are very easy to extract because they are uncombinedin the ground, therefore they were very easy to separate from thecompounds they were found in. The more reactive the metals are,they only discovered after years because they didn’t have engineersand technology to be able to separate the compounds, so theyweren’t able to find the metal.

WHY DID TAKE MORE TIME TO DISCOVER THE MORE REACTIVE

METALS? Because more reactive react with lots of different elements.

So then when it comes to extracting the metal it gets harder to purify it. Another reason that it was harder to extract is because on the past they didn’t have good technology so they couldn’t purify the metal, nowadays they have better technology, therefore they are able to purify the metal. Another reason is because in the past they didn’t have electricity, so they weren’t able to separate the metal from the compound it combined. Electrolysis has to be used to separate the reactive metals, so they were not discovered until electricity was in use. Electrolysis in science means “a chemical decomposition reaction produced by passing an electric current through a solution containing ions.”

http://www.google.com.qa/searchhl=en&safe=active&biw=1280&bih=596&q=define%3+Electrolysis+&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&oq=&gs_rfai=&safe=active

CONCLUSION I think my information is correct because first I went to

a bbc website that explained about the reactivity of metal and when it was discovered. From that I tried to find website that would have similar information so from that I knew that information would be correct. For example, I found all of the dates of when the metals was found in the bbc website which for sure is going to be correct because it is a learning website then to find who discovered I first checked if it was the same date I had from the bbc website, and if it was the information was probably correct. I first started with a website I new the information was going to be correct, then from the information I had from that website I tried to find similar facts so if I found similar facts I new that the website had good information. I think my information is good because I did a lot of research before I came to a conclusion. So I looked in a bunch of different websites and from that I had an idea of which ones was wrong and which one was correct.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: 1. http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A3935955 2. http://www.tutorvista.com/bow/extraction-of-reac

tive-metals3. http://www.whodiscoveredit.com/who-discovered

-zinc.html4. http://www.whodiscoveredit.com/who-discovered

-aluminum.html

5. http://www.facts-about.org.uk/science-element-magnesium.html

6. http://chemistry.about.com/od/elementfacts/a/calcium.htm

7. http://wanttoknowit.com/who-discovered-sodium/

8. http://www.facts-about.org.uk/science-element-potassium.htm

9. http://wiki.chemeddl.org/index.php/PTL:Rubidium