Testing for Hydrogen Gas

Aim: To show that hydrogen gas is produced when a metal reacts with acid.

Equipment: A test tube, a boiling tube, bunsen burner, wooden splint, a bottle of hydrochloric acid, a piece of metal, safety glasses.

Method:

1. Light your Bunsen burner.
2. Add your sample of metal to your test tube. add 2ml of Hydrochloric acid.
3. Carefully invert the boiling tube above the test tube containing the metal and acid.
4. Hold the test tubes together for a few minutes, allowing time for the inverted boiling tube to fill with gas.
5. When you think the tube is full, your lab partner should light a wooden splint.
6. Carefully, but quickly, tilt the boiling tube full of gas upwards and insert the burning splint into the mouth of the test tube.

Observations: It pops

Discussion: It pops because we drop magnesium into hydrochloric acid making hydrogen. Hydrogen gas fulls the test tubes and we add fire to make go pop. But why magnesium more reactive than zinc and aluminium because magnesium loses its electrons easily than zinc and aluminium, other elements and compounds like oxygen, water and halogens react vigorously with atoms that lose electron easily.