today onai guys exothermic reactions using steel oool and [Music] [Music] vinegar welcome to sa guys I'm Ryan and I'm Adam on today's episode we'll be exploring exothermic reactions with vinegar and steel wool it's about to get hot in here oh boy an exothermic reaction is any chemical reaction that releases more energy in the form of light or heat than it takes for the reaction to occur in this case the reaction is an oxidation reaction the equipment and ingredients you're going to need for this episode includes extra fine steel wool white vinegar Saran Wrap or paper a thermometer and a glass or Beaker and a bowl although we're not dealing with anything hazardous in today's experiment we do recommend that you wear an apron and lab coat as well as gloves and goggles to protect from spills and splashes also exothermic reactions can get a little warm the first step in our experiment is to test the temperature of our steel wool before it goes in the vinegar this will be our control take your steel wool and your thermometer and wrap the steel wool around the thermometer and place it in your glass leave it there until the temperature on the thermometer is stable once you have the temperature of your dry steel wool take your vinegar and pour it into your bowl remove the steel wool from your glass and place it in the vinegar leave it there for a few minutes to soak after your steel o has been soaking for a few minutes remove it from the vinegar and give it a squeeze then taking your thermometer wrap your steel wool around it and place them both together in your glass or Beaker finally take your Saran Wrap and cover them up after about 10 minutes the temperature of our steel wool leveled off at 28.9 De C when we compare the colors of the steel wool we used in our EXP experiment versus one that was untreated you can see that the steel wool used in our experiment turned a reddish brown color let's look this experiment a little closer steel wool is made of an iron alloy which has a protective coating that prevents rusting vinegar is a dilute solution of acetic acid when steel wool is placed into vinegar the acid removes the protective coating from the steel leaving the steel vulnerable to rusting when the steel whe is removed from the vinegar and placed in An Empty Glass it's exposed to oxygen in the air the oxygen in the air attaches to the iron in the steel to create iron oxide or rust rusting is one type of oxidation reaction which is when an atom loses electrons in this case the iron is oxidized when it loses electrons to the oxygen it's bonded with as the steel wool rusts it releases energy classifying this reaction as an exothermic reaction what this means is as the iron and oxygen combine they release more energy in the form of heat than it took for the reaction to occur in the first place along with rust being produced there will also Al be some iron acetate created in this process the rust will have a reddish brown color and the iron will continue to rust until the surface of the steel has been coated in rust or until the oxygen in the glass has been used up well that's it for exothermic reactions using steel wool and vinegar I hope you enjoyed it if you like this episode consider sporting our Next Episode by becoming a patron on patreon the link is down below and remember to subscribe for future episodes make sure to like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter and if you have any suggestions for future episodes make sure to leave a comment down below if you have any questions about this episode or about sense in general let us know in the comments below or message us on Facebook and we'll try to help you as best possible thanks for watching bye bye man it sure did get hot in here you're so abrasive here at SAU we're always curious how experiments turn out so if you do these experiments at home share a video or photo of them with us on our Facebook or go+ page but remember to always ask your parents permission before you share any photos or videos