Year 9

Rearranging Atoms
Unit 5.5
 Looking at chemical reactions
● In chemical reactions. atoms form new combinations.
● Atoms that are on their own may join together with other atoms.

● Atoms that are bonded with other atoms may separate, forming
new combinations with other atoms.
 Atoms are rearranged!
● In the chemical reaction between iron and sulfur, the reactants
and products contain
➢ the same two types of elements,
➢ with an equal number of atoms of each element on both sides of
the reaction.
They have just
rearranged
themselves.

In a chemical reaction, no atoms are lost.

No new atoms are produced.
The atoms are simply rearranged into new
combinations.
● Magnesium metal is a reactant. The magnesium is still present in
the products as part of the salt magnesium chloride.
● The element hydrogen is present in the reactants as part of the
compound hydrochloric acid. In the products it is present as
hydrogen gas.
● The element chlorine is present in the reactants as part of the
compound hydrochloric acid and in the products it is part of the
salt magnesium chloride.

No element in the No new element

reactants disappears. appears in the products.
Word Equation Vs Symbol Equation

The symbol equation

• not only does it tell you which elements
are present in the reactants and products
• but how many atoms of each element
is present.
Conservation of mass
 The law of conservation of mass
● In chemical reactions the elements you begin with are the ones
you end the reaction with.
● Nothing is added or taken away.
● The mass you begin with is the mass you end with.
Conservation of mass
The total mass of the reactants equals to the total mass of
the products since when no new atom enters or no atoms
lost in the reaction.

calcium carbonate + hydrochloric acid → calcium chloride + water + carbon dioxide

 Not the results you expect?
• In this experiment, the total mass of the products after the reaction
decreased compared to that of reactants before the reaction.
➢ Because carbon dioxide gas escapes into the air as the flask is open.
• The word equation for this reaction is:
calcium carbonate + hydrochloric acid → calcium chloride + water + carbon dioxide
➢ He should have used a stopper in the flask to stop the gas escaping.
 Another surprising result
● In burning reaction, the total mass of the products after the reaction
increased compared to that of reactants before the reaction.
● Because oxygen from the air has combined with the reactant.

2Mg (s) + O2 (g) → 2MgO (s)

• There is an increase in mass

• because oxygen from the air has combined
with the magnesium.
 Antione Lavoisier: Father of modern chemistry
● He first determined that oxygen was a key element in combustion.

● He came up with the idea that when

something burns it combines with a gas
from the air.
● He also found that the gas from the air
that is involved in burning is involved in
respiration as well.
● He named it ‘oxygen’.

Antione Lavoisier (1743 – 1794)

 Questions
1. What has happened to the mass after heating?
➢ The mass after heating has increased.

2. Explain why this has happened.

➢ The magnesium has reacted with the oxygen in the air and this
has added to the mass.

3. What is the name of the product of this reaction?

➢ magnesium oxide

5. Why do you need to lift the lid of the crucible from time to time?
➢ So that the air can reach the magnesium and the oxygen in the air
can react with it.
4. What safety risks are there in this experiment?
➢ The safety risks are to do with the heating of the crucible.
➢ It will get very hot and, since the lid has to be raised during the
experiment, the tongs or spatula must be used with care.
➢ Before re-weighing the crucible after heating, it must be left to stand
for quite a long time before it is cool enough to touch.

6. What do you need to be careful about to make sure none of the product
is lost before you find its mass?
➢ When you lift the lid of the crucible during the heating, you must be
careful not to allow any of the product to escape.
➢ As you lift the lid you should be careful not to knock the crucible and
cause the product to spill out.
 Energy and chemical reactions
● All chemical reactions involve energy.
● Energy is used to break bonds in the reactants and energy is
released when new bonds are formed in the products.
● When metals react with water or acids, energy is released, as
thermal energy or sometimes as light or sound or kinetic energy.

Exothermic
‘External’
Energy can be
‘Outside’
thermal transferred
Heat from one form
to another.
Endothermic
‘Internal’
‘Within’
 Exothermic reactions

● In this reaction, less energy is

needed to break bonds in the
reactants than is released when
bonds form in the products.
● This is an exothermic reaction.
 Endothermic reactions

● In other chemical reactions it takes more energy to break bonds in the

reactants than is released when the bonds form in the products.
● These reactions are called endothermic reactions and they take in energy.

● When we eat sherbet sweets, they give us a cool refreshing feeling in

our mouth.
● Energy is transferred from the environment (your mouth) to chemical
energy stored in the bonds of the products.
 Reactants Products

Energy in Energy out

Intermediates

Energy T’ at the end of

Overall/ Net Reaction
transfer reaction
Eout > Ein Energy released Exothermic higher

Ein > Eout Energy absorbed Endothermic Lower

 The law of conservation of energy

• Whether a chemical reaction takes in energy • Energy may be

or releases energy, there is no overall transferred from one
change in the amount of energy during the form to another but the
reaction. same amount of
• This is because energy cannot be created or energy remains after
destroy. the reaction as before.
• This is the law of conservation of energy. • This is true of every
chemical reaction.
 Keywords
● the law of conservation of mass: the principle that there is no
loss or gain of mass in a chemical reaction
● crucible: a piece of laboratory equipment; a container that is
heated directly at high temperatures
● exothermic reaction: a chemical reaction in which energy is
transferred to the environment
● endothermic reactions: chemical reactions in which energy is
transferred from the environment
● the law of conservation of energy: the principle that in a chemical
reaction no energy is created or destroyed just transferred to
other forms
5.5 Rearranging
atoms
Workbook
 5.5A What happens to the atoms and the
mass when chemicals react?
Focus
● In this exercise you develop your understanding of how atoms
rearrange in a chemical reaction and look at what happens to the
mass of products in a reaction.
● When chemicals react together, none of the atoms is lost. They
rearrange to make other chemicals.
5. Marcus places 10 g of iron filings in a test tube. He adds 6 g of
sulfur and mixes the two powders. He then heats the mixture.
The iron and sulfur react together to form iron sulfide.
When the reaction is complete the mass of the product is 16 g.
The mass does not change.

Zara puts 15 g of iron filings and 9 g of sulfur in her test tube and
heats it.
What is the mass of her product?

6. Zara now adds 30 g of calcium carbonate to 50 g hydrochloric

acid. What does Zara expect the reading on the top pan balance to
be when the reaction has finished?
5.5B Before and after the reaction
● The term conservation of mass means that all of the atoms
present at the start of a reaction are still there at the end. No
elements are destroyed and no elements are created, so the mass
of the products is the same as the mass of the reactants.
● One of the products is hydrogen gas. Since Arun used a
beaker without a lid, this gas has escaped into the air.
This accounts for the apparent loss of mass.
10. When a scientist gets an unexpected result in an experiment
what should they do?

● When scientists get an unexpected result in an experiment they

should repeat the experiment several times to ensure the
unexpected result is not a mistake.
 5.5C Investigating burning magnesium
Challenge
In this exercise you will make a conclusion from experimental data and
consider the practical problems if carrying out an investigation.
In an investigation, magnesium is burned in a limited volume of pure oxygen.
The aim of the investigation is to answer this question.
How does the mass of the compound formed depend on the mass of the
magnesium burned?
1 What variables need to be controlled to make this investigation fair?
● The volume of oxygen used,
● the time taken to transfer the deflagrating spoon,
● the time taken to light the magnesium.

2 Write the word equation for the reaction between magnesium and oxygen.
4. State a conclusion you can make from these data.
● The greater the mass of magnesium burned, the greater the mass
of product formed.
● However, this is only true of masses of magnesium up to 2.0 g;
above this the mass of the product does not change.

5. Explain why the mass of the compound formed stays the same when
the mass of the magnesium used increases from 2.0 g to 3.0 g.
● Because the magnesium has used up all the (limited supply of)
oxygen available. Some of the magnesium may not have been burnt.
6. If you carried out his investigation in a laboratory, suggest:
a) problems you could have getting accurate results
● There are a number of movements of things into and out of the
gas jar, and so chances to spill magnesium or the product.
● Also, there is a good chance that some oxygen will be lost from
the gas jar as the deflagrating spoon is transferred.
● The lighting of the magnesium would need to be done quickly.
● If some magnesium had not burned it would need to be separated
from the product

b) safety aspects you should consider.

● The burning magnesium should not be looked at directly.
● The deflagrating spoon will get hot so will need to cool down
before the mass of the product can be measured.
● Add charcoal to remove the colour from the universal indicator
solution; filter to remove the charcoal and then pour the solution
into an evaporating basin and heat gently. Leave the solution to
evaporate and to form the crystals.
Let’s learn and
grow together!