• Question: How can Magnesium show the Difference between a Strong and a Weak Acid?

    Asked by meg123 to Amy, Karen, Sarah, Vijay, Will on 19 Jun 2012.
    • Photo: Karen Reed

      Karen Reed answered on 19 Jun 2012:

      This is one for Will the chemist to answer – I don;t know (and not even intersted to google it sorry)

    • Photo: Sarah Martin

      Sarah Martin answered on 19 Jun 2012:

      Hi meg!

      Magnesium will react with an acid and make hydrogen gas. The difference is that strong and weak acids have different reaction rates. The more concentrated the acid, the faster the magnesium will react and you will see bubbles of hydrogen being produced more quickly! This is because the strong acid has more hydrogen ions in the solution even though it is at the same concentration as the weak acid.
      A piece of magnesium the same size should be used in both acids for the comparison to be fair!

      🙂 Sarah

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