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Penny Lab

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Percent Copper in a Penny Lab Report

Chemistry 101 Section #02 Washington State University

By Sadie Yost April 15, 2024 Partner: Abigail Swenson.

Introduction This lab was conducted to help students learn how to develop their own experiment by using knowledge gained from previous labs to determine the amount of copper in a 1983 or newer penny. Information from previous labs was used to help students properly collect and analyze data. Throughout the experiment, notetaking and observational skills were also tested. The U.S. Mint was first opened in 1793, and pennies were originally crafted out of 100% pure copper. By 1857, the composition of the penny was altered to incorporate nickel and then switched to a combination of tin and zinc in …show more content…
What is the difference between a'smart' and a'smart'? Percent of Copper in a Penny Given the above calculated concentration of 6.6710(-2) mol/L, the volume of the dissolved penny solution of 90 mL or 0.090 L and the molar mass of copper (63.55g/mol), the percent of copper can be determined. To begin, the moles of copper must be calculated. (6.6710(-2) mol/L)0.090L=6.00310(-3) mol Next, the mass of copper must be determined. (63.55g/mol)(6.00310(-3) mol)=0.3812g Now that we have the mass of the copper, the percent of copper in the pennies can be calculated by dividing the mass of copper by the total weight of the pennies. (0.3812g)/(7.537g)100 = 5.06% 4.Percent Error Given that modern pennies have about 2.5% copper in them the percent error is as follows: (5.06-2.5)/(2.5)100=102.4% Results/Discussion The results of the experiment indicate that the concentration of the copper penny solution was 6.6710(-2) mol/L and the calculated percent of copper in the pennies was 5.06%. Based on these results and the calculated percent error of 102.4%, it is very clear that there is an extremely large gap between the actual percent of copper and the calculated percent of copper. The percent error being so high indicates that at some point during the experiment, an error was made. One source that could have potentially resulted in a high percent error was the handling of the nitric acid. The original amount placed in each beaker was 20 mL, however; after some time had passed and the pennies had shown little to no physical change, more NHO_3 was added. By adding more nitric acid, the experiment became less controlled as each beaker did not hold the same amount of nitric acid. 10 extra milliliters were added to penny 3 and 20 extra milliliters were added to penny 1. This fluctuation in volumes could have resulted in an unequal copper concentration. It is also possible that the extra amount of nitric acid was not measured precisely, leading to more room for error when the

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