Primary School Science

[SteveD CB500K0]

Anoraks only...

My wife teaches year 4 primary (9 year olds)

Next week they are doing “rust”

I’ve been asked (= told) to find a load of experimental kit:

Steel nail
Zinc plated nail
Stainless nail
Copper nail
Brass nail
Wrought iron nail

These are to be subjected to immersion in the following:

Rainwater
Carbonated water
Salty water
Vinegar
Lemon juice

I can probably dig up most of them as screws or bolts, but copper nails?

Would anyone like to predict what 30 year fours will find?


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[Moorey]

Copper nails are quite common especially for roofers. Also used for killing trees.

[K2-K6]

Warmed up the adenoids and dug my anorak out 

Do you mean corrosion? Or rust as in ferrous orange flaky stuff?

Thought you'd get rust more with steel and wrought iron in salty water most easily.

The others may discolour to some extent.

Two (copper and steel)  for example in lemon juice may plate one onto the other.

Copper goes green in rainwater on roofs,  but may take a while to show in experiment.

[Woodside]

Wire/cable
Penny....?

As long as it's copper

Does it have to be a nail

[hairygit]

Wire/cable
Penny....?

As long as it's copper

Does it have to be a nail

Post I think 1991 1p and 2p coins aren't pure copper, they contain steel as well, check with a magnet. That was because at that time the world price of copper soared, and the 7grams of  copper was worth more than the 2p face value, and unscrupulous villains were smelting coins of the realm for scrap copper value!

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[Crispy]

what about plumbing stuff, a bit of copper pipe or copper pipe clip straightened out?

[sye]

Any builders merchants will give you a copper and aluminium nail.

[Moorey]

Wire/cable
Penny....?

As long as it's copper

Does it have to be a nail

For a experiment for young children  then they all have to be the same so there is a direct comparison. Otherwise it will just lead to confusion for some .

[Moorey]

I would have thought genuine wrought iron nails would be the hard one to find as against ones made of steel and called wrought iron.

[kevski]

Copper panel pins at most big DIY chains and cut brads will take care of the wrought iron.

[Moorey]

Copper panel pins at most big DIY chains and cut brads will take care of the wrought iron.

Brad nails are made out of steel, not wrought iron there is a big difference. It is quite rare to find genuine wrought iron. The wrought iron nails are made from re-rolled puddled wrought iron plate, not steel.  Things generally sold these days as wrought iron are not wrought iron.
Wrought iron generally should have a slower rate of corrosion than steel. That's why there are so many centuries old gates etc still surviving.

[matthewmosse]

Wrought iron nails - any really old building if they haven't rusted out. Copper nails, roofing supplies. I can probably find both of those plus galvy nails but size and surface area likely to be very different. Might have alloy nails too. That's assuming we still have leftover copper nails from re roofing. Faily sure nails reclaimed from our renovation are pre 1875 based on the bottles of 'Edwardian patent Tonic' and 1875 mining magazine stuffed into a crack in the loft floorboards. Drop me a PM with an address and I'll post a few nails over.

[royhall]

Name me one other forum where you can request a bag of mixed nails. Then instead of a load of abuse you actually get a bag of mixed nails. Blooming wonderful.

[mattsz]

Name me one other forum where you can request a bag of mixed nails. Then instead of a load of abuse you actually get a bag of mixed nails. Blooming wonderful.

Actually, I can think of a couple of others - but none of those will help you fix your Honda!