Shiny Pennies

 

In this experiment, you will clean your pennies using chemistry! The acetic acid in the vinegar will combine with the copper on the pennies to form copper acetate, which will then accumulate on the nail.

 

Supplies needed:

  • ½ cup vinegar
  • ¼ teaspoon salt
  • Glass jar
  • 25 copper pennies
  • Iron nail

Procedure:

  1. Mix ½ cup vinegar and ¼ teaspoon salt in a glass jar.
  2. Add 25 copper pennies to the solution, and let them sit for 5 minutes.
  3. While you are waiting, take a large iron nail and clean it off with some baking soda applied to a damp sponge.
  4. Rinse off the nail, and place it into the solution.
  5. Wait 15 minutes, what happened?
  6. The nail should be coated with copper, and the pennies should shine like new.

Skills: Observing, inferring, predicting, communicating, formulating hypotheses, identifying and controlling variables, experimenting