Penny Lab Report

The purpose of this lab was to change pennies from copper to silver to gold, like alchemists have attempted to do in history. Through the data and observations gathered throughout this experiment, it can be concluded that the pennies were not changed into a different element. For example, the density of the penny from 2005; which was the penny that was experimented on to see whether or not it could turn into silver; was 4.62 g/cm3 before the experiment and 4.89 g/cm3 by the end of the experiment. If this copper penny really would have turned into silver, then the density of the penny would be 10.49 g/cm3; which is the density of silver; by the end of the experiment. The penny may have turned silver in color, but this was only because it was plated in the zinc that was added to the beaker of water in the experiment.

The density of the penny was 4.68 g/cm3 before the experiment and 4.43 g/cm3 at the end of the experiment. The density of gold, though, is 19.3 g/cm3. Since the densities of the penny and the gold are different, the penny clearly did not change into another element. The gold color of the penny was a result of the flame that it was held above melting the zinc that it was coated in with the original bronze colored coating of the penny, creating an alloy with a shiny yellow color. Since neither of the pennies, silver colored or gold, changed densities throughout the experiment and each retained their own properties; the properties of copper; no new elements were