Copper Cycle Lab

What we are trying to find out is more about the law of conservation of mass. The way we are trying to figure this out is by doing an experiment called the Copper Cycle which is where you start with copper and add many different chemicals and lots of process where the copper is no longer visible. We wanted to see for ourselves what happens to copper when we made many chemical changes and in the end what happened to zinc when the copper appeared. What we found out at the end is that the copper appeared again which tells us that the copper never left and was never destroyed. What we also found out that the zinc did not leave but it dissolved into the solution and displaced copper forcing it back into copper solid.
Methods:
On the first day,

Next we moved the beaker into the fume hood where we added the nitric acid, HNO3(aq), where the solution started to fizzle and there was a brown gas produced called nitrogen dioxide, NO2(g), which then made the solution blue called copper nitrate, Cu(NO3)2(aq), which smelled like bleach. When we put the 25 mL of water nothing happened to the solution and looked the solution looked the same. After, we had to measure 2 mL of the concentrated sodium hydroxide, NaOH(aq), in the graduated cylinder and then poured into the beaker slowly which made the solution a darker blue and made it a solid copper hydroxide, Cu(OH)2(s). When the beaker was placed onto the hot plate the solution was turning black and into a solid that smelled bad called copper oxide, CuO(s). When it cooled down nothing happened but when the mixture was being filtered the solids stayed in the filter paper and a clear liquid came out which was sodium nitrate, NaNO3(aq). On the second day when the sulfuric acid, H2SO4(aq), was added the solid started to liquify and it started to turn blue making it copper sulfate, CuSO4(aq). After we added zinc, Zn(s) a silver element, to the beaker and stirred it until the zinc was dissolved and the liquid turned clear which was zinc sulfate, ZnSO4(aq). When we were done stirring what we were left with was copper which ended up a

While the copper was going through the changing process this is related to the Law of Conservation of mass. These are related because we wanted to use the copper as an example to prove whether or not the copper disappeared. The law of conservation of mass states that mass can not be created or destroyed but simply its atoms rearranged to form new substances. In the experiment we started out with copper and when we added more and more chemicals and caused it to change it seemed as if the copper did leave but in fact since we ended up with the same copper it proves that the copper never left. Copper has been through many chemicals and identity changes but it also has changed phases because at first it was a solid but then it turned into an aqueous solution back to a solid repeating in a cycle. The same happened with the zinc because when we added zinc and stirred it in the solution it “disappeared” but actually what happened was that the zinc dissolved into the solution and displaced the copper into a solid and also zinc sulfate, ZnSO4(aq). Therefore, in this experiment there was no compound or anything that was destroyed due to the law of conservation of mass which means that matter isn't destroyed neither is the elements and