Investigation Plan

The copper and silver nitrate reminds me mostly of the second lab which was the aluminum and blue stuff lab. In this lab we found that the chlorine switched the bonds between the aluminum and the copper. In the pipes we have copper so we can assume that some chemical is making the copper switch bonds with the silver in the silver nitrate. When looking at the observations between the copper in liquid form, from the aluminum and blue stuff lab, and the liquid after in the copper and silver nitrate, they are the same. This shows that they are both copper in liquid form. Due to the law of conservation of mass we can't have anything that we didn't have before. Therefore we have Chlorine in one reaction and Nitrate in the other. I decided to take the nitrate out of the silver nitrate because the copper pipe in the reaction has a sort of silver colored metal stuck to it therefore the silver in not in liquid form any more because metals are insoluble in water. After all of these observations I think that the nitrate acted just like the chlorine and they switched the bonds after the reaction. This was a single replacement because they just switched one thing in the chemical reactions.

Chemical Equation

3AgNO3+3Cu ---- 3Ag+3CuNO3

In order to test this reaction we can start by analyzing the leftover substance that was left on the copper wire. We need to test to see if it is in fact silver. One possible way to do this is by taking the liquid from the reaction and running an electrical current through it. Once this happens we should see copper forming on the wire and the water should begin to clear up. Once we have conducted the battery test we can see that this fully supports and answers the question. What we would see happening with the battery would be the same thing that happened in the last part of the iodine and zinc lab. Once we had the zinc iodide we were able to separate the bond with the help of the battery. The battery test will show that the copper from the wire is in the water with the nitrate due to the law of conservation of mass. Once we separate the two the only leftover part is the silver which is located on the copper wire. This is a very good test because it applies what we have learned in the water investigation lab and the zinc and iodine lab.