Galvanized Nails Lab Report

1776 Words4 Pages

Introduction:
The standard amount of zinc to be put on a galvanized nail is between 0.28 and 1.00 oz/ft2. The higher quality nails have a higher amount of zinc, around 1.00 oz/ft2. The lower quality nails have a lower amount of zinc on them. The lowest amount it can be within the standard is 0.28 oz/ft2, otherwise it doesn’t meet the standard. However, the box doesn’t list the amount of zinc or whether it is good quality or not.
My goal in this experiment was to determine the amount of zinc (in grams) on 5 different galvanized nails to see if this specific box was up to standard, as well as how consistent the weight of the zinc is on each nail and do so by measuring the weight of the nail initially, then take the zinc off with the hydrochloric …show more content…

Then I weighed each of them on the analytical balance with a precision of +/- 0.0001 g. After finding the weight, I found the length of the nail by measuring with a ruler with a precision of +/- 0.1 mm. Then I was able to calculate the diameter of the nail with the caliper with a precision of +/- 0.001 mm. With those three measurements I was able to calculate the surface area. I prepared five different test tubes with the same amount of hydrochloric acid in each and then put the nails in them to eat away the zinc. I then re-weighed each nail and subtracted the final weight of the nail from the initial weight to get the weight of the zinc on the nail with a precision of +/- 0.0001 g. Table 1 lists the results from the experiment including length, weight, radius, surface area and mass of zinc of each …show more content…

These would both be determinate errors. This could have either made the surface area measurement larger or smaller than it actually is. Another determinate error that could have happened would have been measuring the diameter in inches instead of millimeters or forgetting to divide the diameter by 2 to find the radius. This could have also made the measurements bigger or smaller than they actually are. An indeterminate error could have been the nail having a head and a point. This creates the surface area to be off from what it actually is because we were finding the surface area of just a cylinder.
Some new ideas I have come up with since finishing this lab would be to redo it with “hot dipped” nails from different stores as well as electrolyzed nails from different stores. This would not only allow me to compare the nails in the box alone, but compare them to other nails from other stores that were galvanized the same and galvanized differently. I would be interested in knowing more about the purpose of the zinc on the nails as well as why there is a standard of how much zinc should be on a

More about Galvanized Nails Lab Report

Open Document