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Penny for your thoughts Kidd

Introduction

Before 1982, pennies were made of an alloy of copper. Since then, they have been made
in with an outside coating of copper and an inner core of a different metal. The purpose of this
lab is to figure out what metal is in the core of the post-1982 pennies. The new core of the post-
1982 pennies will be determined by measuring the mass and volume of the two groups of 25
pennies. One group will be pre, and one group will be post-1982 pennies. The pennies will be
placed onto a scale to determine the mass, starting with five pennies, then ten, 15, 20, and then
25. The same will be done for volume, but instead of putting the pennies on a scale, they will be
put into a graduated cylinder. The volumes of the two groups of pennies will be determined by
water displacement. Water displacement is the process of a submerged object displacing a
volume of liquid equal to the volume of the object. The mass and volume data of the two groups
of pennies will be graphed and the slope of each line will be calculated using the formula y2-
y1/x2-x1. The slope of each line will represent the average destiny of each group of pennies. The
average density of the post-1982 pennies will be compared to a list of elements and the elements
with the closest density will be chosen as the core of the post-1982 pennies.

Experimental

The important materials that were needed in this lab were a scale, graduated cylinders,
the 50 pennies (25 pre-1982 and 25 post-1982), writing utensils, rulers, and graph paper. The
first step was to gather one of the two groups of pennies, either the pre or post 1982. Then five
pennies from that group were placed onto the balance and the mass was recorded. Then 10
pennies were placed on and the mass was recorded, then 15, 20, then 25, and then the same with
the other group.

Once all the data has been gathered, the information from each data table was graphed
with the mass on the y-axis and the volume for the x-axis. The slope of each line was calculated
and the slopes were compared to the densities of a list of elements. The metal with a density
similar to the slope of the post-1982 pennies was chosen as the new inner core.

Discussion

The newer pennies seemed to be much lighter in volume and mass, and they also seemed
to be lighter in weight and color. When comparing the two groups of pennies, it was obvious that
the older pennies had more mass than the new ones. The mass of 25 pre-1982 pennies was 77.16
grams compared to the mass of the post-1982 pennies which were 62.60 grams. The volumes of
both groups were very similar. The net-volume of 25 pre-1982 pennies was 9.0 mL and the net-
volume of the post-1982 was 9.0 mL.

The slope, which represented the average density, of the pre-1982 pennies was calculated
using graph paper as 8.7 g/mL. This slope was compared to the density of copper, 8.96 g/mL,
which is the main metal used in the making of the older pennies. The two densities were very
Penny for your thoughts Kidd

similar, the error may have been in the pennies (may have been dirty or worn down) or in the
balance and graduated cylinder. The slope of the post-1982 pennies was calculated using graph
paper as 6.86 g/mL. This slope was compared to a list of elements and the metal with the closest
density to the slope was Zinc. Zinc was then chosen to be the inner core of the post-1982
pennies.

Conclusion

Zinc was chosen as the inner core of the newer pennies. The amount of inaccuracy was
surprising and I would have been more careful with the measurements if I were to do the lab
again.

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