Help in chemistry question please (1 Viewer)

[mike12345678]

hi guys,

could someone please help with this chemistry question its pretty urgent

explain, using examples, how the variety of metals available for humans has increased over time . include one balanced equation in your answer. thanx

 

[someth1ng]

explain, using examples, how the variety of metals available for humans has increased over time . include one balanced equation in your answer. thanx

I suppose this question is asking about how the human usage of metals has changed over time. I'm not entirely sure if this would get full marks but this is how I would answer the question:

A thousands of years ago when stone was used, with the discovery of Gold, the first metal found since it was unreactive in nature. This then developed to discovery copper however since copper was a soft metal, it was often mixed with another metal to make alloys such as Bronze for weapons. This eventually went to Iron which was harder than Bronze and so was a more effective weapon, Iron needed to be extracted from ores such that it needed to be reacted with Carbon such that 2Fe2O3 + 3C --> 4Fe + 3CO2 to obtain the Iron metal. In the modern era, we currently have access to by far more metals including all previously listed, Mercury, Zinc, Lead, Nickel, Platinum, Aluminium, Magnesium, Sodium...etc. Through this, it is evident that more metals have been available over time.

 

[xOllyx]

I suppose this question is asking about how the human usage of metals has changed over time. I'm not entirely sure if this would get full marks but this is how I would answer the question:

A thousands of years ago when stone was used, with the discovery of Gold, the first metal found since it was unreactive in nature. This then developed to discovery copper however since copper was a soft metal, it was often mixed with another metal to make alloys such as Bronze for weapons. This eventually went to Iron which was harder than Bronze and so was a more effective weapon, Iron needed to be extracted from ores such that it needed to be reacted with Carbon such that 2Fe2O3 + 3C --> 4Fe + 3CO2 to obtain the Iron metal. In the modern era, we currently have access to by far more metals including all previously listed, Mercury, Zinc, Lead, Nickel, Platinum, Aluminium, Magnesium, Sodium...etc. Through this, it is evident that more metals have been available over time.

pretty much right, you need to talk about why though, not just how easy they are to obtain. Gold was used first because its a free metal and because of its low melting point whereas other metals were used later because temperatures couldn't be reached. Also other techniques such as electrolysis for aluminium.

 

[maths lover]

pretty much right, you need to talk about why though, not just how easy they are to obtain. Gold was used first because of its low melting point whereas other metals were used later because temperatures couldn't be reached. Also other techniques such as electrolysis for aluminium.

this doesnt make sense, the reason to why gold was found earlier was because of unreactive nature, hence existing as a free metal as opposed to other metals such as iron which need to be extracted from its mineral. we have a greater variety of metals nowdays, for the main reason that the technological advancements have allowed us to extract more reactive metals from their minerals.

 

[nightweaver066]

I think you would need to include the discovery of electrolysis as a sustained electrical current was able to be produced in the early 1800s resulting in many new reactive metals to be discovered.

 

[xOllyx]

this doesnt make sense, the reason to why gold was found earlier was because of unreactive nature, hence existing as a free metal as opposed to other metals such as iron which need to be extracted from its mineral. we have a greater variety of metals nowdays, for the main reason that the technological advancements have allowed us to extract more reactive metals from their minerals.

Yeah my mistake, copper and gold are found free in nature but they were able to utilise these metals because they have lower melting points and could be easily reshaped. It does make sense and we are both correct, the un-reactive part is what is more important in an exam i suppose.

 

[someth1ng]

Copper needed to be extracted from its ore such as Malachite, make sure you don't get mixed with Copper as pure in nature since Copper is NOT always found in pure form in nature. Only Gold, Silver and Platinum were found in pure form but generally it was Gold that was found and therefore used first.