Question

A scientist has two saucepans made of iron. He heats up silver nitrate solution in one, and zinc nitrate solution in the other.(a) A hole appears under one of the saucepans. Which saucepan is it?(b) Explain why the hole appears under that saucepan and not the other one.

Answer 1

Iron + zinc nitrate does not react, therefore you will not see a whole on th iron pan.

However, Iron and silver nitrate do react. Thus a whole will be seen under the saucepan.

(a) Iron + silver nitrate saucepan will have a hole because the two substances react.

(b) The whole appears because Iron reacts with silver nitrate in the following reaction:

$Fe+2AgNO_3\text{ }\rightarrow Fe(NO_3)_2\text{ + 2Ag}$

This results in hole.