Lin dropped a small piece of copper wire into the blue liquid. They waited. One minute. Two. The copper sat at the bottom like a sleeping snake. The blue remained blue.
Lin nodded, swirling the last of the pale, colourless solution down the sink. “That’s not war,” she smiled. “That’s displacement. And now we know how to prove who belongs where.”
“Don’t be a hero yet,” Lin warned, pouring 2 cm³ of the deep, sapphire-blue copper(II) sulphate solution into each tube. The liquid was beautiful, like a piece of the ocean trapped in glass. chemistry form 4 experiment 5.1
“Correct. And the reactivity series order from this experiment?”
“Exothermic,” Maya whispered, recording the temperature rise. The magnesium was even more reactive than zinc. It had ripped the copper from the solution with such force that it generated heat. Lin dropped a small piece of copper wire
“Last one,” Ravi whispered, holding the magnesium ribbon with a pair of tongs. Puan Aishah wandered over. “Careful, Ravi. This one is dramatic.”
Only the blue solution. Nothing happened. It remained still, a calm witness. Lin nodded, swirling the last of the pale,
The solution turned from vibrant blue to a pale, cloudy colourless. The reddish-brown solid was pure, elemental copper. Zinc was the hero.