April 2015

# Zinc metal in a solution of copper(II) sulfate and sulfuric acid from Beautiful Chemistry Website

## Recommended link

Yan Liang, Xiangang Tao, Wei Huang

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The cover photo is from BeautifulChemistry.net, an amazing website for both you and your students. The site shows videos of common chemical reactions filmed with a 4K UltraHD camera and special lenses. With no distraction from beakers and test tubes, details in the videos are astonishing. The website is a collaboration between the Institute of Advanced Technology at the University of Science and Technology of China and Tsinghua University Press. The goal of the project is to bring the beauty of chemistry to the general public through digital media and technology. The photography and videos were done by Yan Liang; chemical reaction design was by Xiangang Tao, Wei Huang and Yan Liang.

Pictured is a photo from the video where a piece of zinc metal is dropped into a solution of copper(II) sulfate and sulfuric acid. As beautiful as this photo is, the posted videos are much more spectacular.

Have your students identify the photographic evidence for a chemical reaction or better yet, have them write out the chemical reaction taking place.

The best thing about this website is that the chemical reactions filmed are common in the high school chemistry classroom. You can have your students be awed by the beauty of the chemistry and then:

- indicate whether the process is a chemical or a physical change based on the video.
- determine the products of the reactions based on the photographic evidence.
- write out the word equation and the balanced chemical equation.

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