Penny Experiments

What You Will Need:

A few dull pennies Vinegar Salt Non-metal bowl Paper towels Nuts and bolts (only if available)

What To Do:

PART 11. Add cup of vinegar to a bowl and add 1 teaspoon of salt. Stir it up.2. Put about 5 pennies into the bowl and wait approximately 10 seconds.3. Take the pennies out and rinse with water.

PART 21. Do not empty the bowl with the vinegar and salt solution.2. Add more pennies to the bowl for approximately 10 seconds. 3. Take the pennies out and do NOT rinse with water.4. Place them on a paper towel to dry off.

PART 3 (OPTIONAL)1. Keep the bowl with the vinegar and salt solution.2. Place one or two nuts and bolts in the solution. 3. Observe what is happening.

What is Happening:

PART 1Vinegar is an acid, and the acid in the vinegar reacts with the salt to remove what chemists call copper oxide, which was making the pennies dull.

PART 2In time the pennies will turn greenish-blue as a chemical called malachite forms on the pennies.

PART 3 (OPTIONAL)The nuts and bolts may become copper in color! The vinegar removed some of the copper from the pennies, and if there is enough copper in the vinegar, the copper will become attracted by to the metal in the nuts and bolts. The nuts and bolts will therefore take on a new copper color.