Internal Assessment Activity (IAA)

Series 5 valid from June 2010 to May 2012

C2 Topic 6 – In your Element
Metals and their alloys

Information for students

Before attempting the IAA

You need to have done practical work, to show some physical properties of
metals (including electrical conductivity) and the conduction of electricity
in aqueous solutions of salts.

When doing your practical / investigative work, you need to think about
• how you can plan the investigation to collect valid data and reliable data
• why you might need to repeat the experiment
• how to plot a graph from your results
• recognising and describing patterns or trends in data
• drawing conclusions, evaluating the strength of the evidence and the validity and
reliability of your results.

The Internal Assessment Activity (IAA)

In the IAA, you will be assessed on
• planning (P)
• extracting information and using data (EIUD)
• interpretation, judgement and opinion (IJO).
You will not see the IAA in advance.
The IAA will take 45 minutes and will be written under controlled conditions.
You will not be allowed any information from your investigation.
You will not be able to change or repeat the IAA but your teacher may give you
feedback to help you understand how to improve your skills.
Metals and their alloys

1. Draw a label diagram how you assembled you apparatus to show how
metals conduct electricity.

2. Explain why the melting point of metals cannot be measured in your

laboratory

_________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
 3. Ionic solids dissolve in water and conduct electricity.

a) Draw a suitable diagram to show how you measure the current flowing
through sodium chloride solution.

b) Plan an experiment to investigate the fact that the deeper the electrodes
are the solution, the more current flows.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 4. How could you obtain reliable data?

• Repeat the experiment for each step of the experiment

• Record current flowing/ ammeter reading for each step
• The data is reliable until you obtain concordant results

5. How you make sure that the data is valid

• Keep all the variables that could affect the results constant.
Same apparatus
Same graphite electrodes
Same concentration of solution
Same direct current supply

• Use different depth of electrodes (different surface area sink) each

time in the solution and record the current from the ammeter reading
for each experiment.

6. Melting points of metals:

Melting Point
Metal
(oC)

Beryllium 1285

Cadmium 321

Chromium 1860

Cobalt 1495

Copper 1084

Use the above melting points of some metals and draw a bar chart on the
following page.
Bar chart Melting point of metals in oC Vs Metals
 7. Alloys

Alloys are mixtures of metals.

When iron is added to brass it produces hard, tough alloys.
One of these is delta metal which is made of 55% copper, 41% zinc, 3% iron, 1 % of
tin.

Draw a pie chart for the above alloy percentage composition and label the chart.

8. Metals are hard and a hard scale number is used to compare their
hardness

a) Use the following information to draw the graph of hardness number

against atomic number.

b) Describe the pattern of the graph

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Graph
 9. The amount of each different metal in the alloy gives different
melting point for each specific alloy.

Some different alloy mixtures and their melting points are shown on the
graph below.
a) The melting point of zinc is _________

b) The melting point of lead is _________

c) What happens to the melting point of the alloys as the % of tin

increases from 0 to 60?

d) What happens to the melting point of the alloys as the % of tin

increases from 80 to 100?

e) Which is the lowest melting point of the alloy?

f) Why the answer in e can only be an estimate?

g) What extra evidence you need to be sure that the graph between 0 %
and 50% tin is really a straight line?
 10. The following graph was found in the internet and is about
melting points of group 2 metals.

a) A student saw this graph and came to a conclusion that the maximum
melting point of all metals is 1560 K and is the metal Be.
Comment on the validity and reliability of his conclusion.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------