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How It Can Be Used To Explain The Difference Between Zinc And Magnesium

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When voltage was measured the nail covered with zinc had the highest average voltage of 0.695267 V followed by Magnesium with 0.307733 volts and the controlled iron alloy had the smallest voltage, 0.2572 V. When current was measured zinc produced the highest current (160.2733 A) followed by Magnesium (52.6733 A) and the smallest was again the control (19.27 A). As shown in the above tables 1 and 2 the mean and median were quite similar throughout testing besides magnesium which wasn’t as close as the others. Explain what that means
In table 3 above it can be seen that the theoretical and experimental voltages are extremely different. Although the theoretical ones occur in standard room temperature and pressure there is still a big difference between them. The large difference between the two could be caused by many factors and errors that could have occurred during tests.
The sacrificial anodes; magnesium and zinc had higher reactivity compared to the steel alloy. …show more content…

This was indicated by having a higher current and voltage than the control and can be seen fully rusted instead of the nail. There was indication that there was a reaction occurring between the magnesium and salt solution. When the magnesium and salt water mixed, they formed magnesium hydroxide, hydrogen gas which was seen as bubbles around the nail and heat. The heat indicating that energy was lost as heat rather than voltage, because of this reaction magnesium failed to maintain protecting and was deteriorating (appendix 1, figure B). Although magnesium corroded the most it was unable to continue corroding as it had already been consumed and over corroded. Over-corrosion of magnesium lost during the reaction with the salt water would have caused it to longer be able to protect the nail if it was left in the salt water longer. When packing up rust was already visible on the

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