Magnesium & HCL React to Produce H2 Gas

• 1. Start by adding a set volume of dilute hydrochloric acid to a conical flask and carefully place on a mass balance
• 2. Now add some magnesium ribbon to the acid and quickly plug the flask with the cotton wool
• 3. Start the stopwatch and record the mass on the balance. Take readings of the mass at regular intervals
• 4. Plot the results in a table and work out the mass lost for each reading. Now you can plot a grapgh with time on the x-axis and loss of mass of the y-axis
• 5. Repeat with more concentrated acid solutions. Variables such as the amount of magnesium ribbon and the volume of acid used should be kept the same each time - only change the acid's concentration. This is to make your experiment a fair test
• 6. This graph shows that a higher concentration of acid gives you a faster rate of reaction

  
• In this experiment, you could also use a gas syringe
• Putting cotton wool in the top of the flask lets the gas escape but stops the acid spitting out