Question

Iron is more reactive than copper. Write an activity to show this.

Answer 1

Hint: The reactivity of any metal depends on how fast it displaces the other metal from its salt solution. Thus a reactivity series is implemented that has highly reactive metals at the top and less reactive metals at the bottom. The metals at the top can displace metals at the bottom from their aqueous salt solutions.

Complete answer:
Iron is more reactive than copper, this can be proved with an activity.
Materials required for the activity: copper sulfate solution, iron filings or iron nail, test tube.
Procedure: take some copper sulfate solution (4-5 ml) in a test tube. Then immerse the iron filings or the iron nail in this solution. Wait for some time until the reaction happens.
Observation: after sometime it will be observed that the blue color copper sulfate solution turns pale green in color. This is due to the displacement of copper from copper sulfate to iron. The reaction that happens is a displacement reaction that is-
$Fe+CuS{{O}_{4}}\to FeS{{O}_{4}}+Cu$
Hence, this activity shows that iron is more reactive than copper as it is able to displace copper in its aqueous salt solution.

Note:
If we reverse the activity by adding copper to the iron sulfate solution, then no change will happen. This is because iron is more reactive and copper being less reactive cannot displace iron from its aqueous salt solution. The reactivity series shows the placing of iron above copper, so iron is more reactive than copper.