Adapted from an experiment by Gary Wulfsburg, Middle Tennessee State University, and used with his permission.The purpose of this experiment is not only to determine the relative activities of thirteen metals, but to determine the best predictor of reactivity that can subsequently be used to predict how other metals on the periodic chart will react in given situations.
Hypotheses of activities based on the placement of the metal on the periodic table, ionization energies (or potentials), Pauling's electronegativities, and Alred-Rochow electronegativities will be formed and tested. The hypothesis which most closely matches the observed reactivities of the thirteen metals with cold water, hot water, cold 3M HCl, hot 3M HCl, 0.5M lead(II) acetate, copper(II) nitrate, silver nitrate, and/or mercuric nitrate, will be the one then selected as the best predictor of metal reactivity. Students will then use this to predict reactions in a set of appliction problems.