Properties of metals Cambridge IGCSE Combined Science revision
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In plain words
You can usually spot a metal: it's shiny, it rings when you tap it, it feels cold because it conducts heat away from your hand, and it bends rather than snaps. Non-metals are mostly the opposite.
Three things to know
- Metals are good conductors of heat and electricity, malleable, ductile and shiny, and most have high melting points. Solid non-metals are usually dull, brittle, poor conductors.
- Many metals react with dilute acids to give a salt and hydrogen, and with oxygen to give basic oxides.
- The most reactive metals react with cold water; magnesium reacts with steam: Mg + H₂O → MgO + H₂.
Tips and tricks
- The test for hydrogen is a lighted splint: a squeaky pop.
- With cold water the product is a hydroxide. With steam it is an oxide.
It lands in your notebook with its questions as flashcards.
Properties of metals: 5 questions and answers
These are the quiz’s questions. Do the quiz first, then come back here for the ones that got you.
Which is a property of metals?
Their delocalised electrons carry the current.
A metal reacts with dilute acid. What are the products?
Metal + acid → salt + hydrogen.
What type of oxide do metals usually form?
Metal oxides react with acids.
Which is a property of most solid non-metals?
They shatter rather than bend.
Which metal does not react with dilute hydrochloric acid?
Copper is below hydrogen in the reactivity series.
Quiz
5 questions
Tap an answer and you’ll see straight away whether it’s right, and why.
Worksheet
3 questions, 7 marks. Write your answers on paper, then check them.
Properties of metals
Cambridge IGCSE Combined Science 0653 · 7 marks · papermunch.org
Name ______________________________ Date ______________
Give three physical properties that are typical of metals.[3]
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Any three: good conductor of electricity; good conductor of heat; malleable; ductile; shiny; high melting point; high density.
Name the products when zinc reacts with dilute sulfuric acid, and describe the test for the gas.[2]
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Zinc sulfate and hydrogen. A lighted splint gives a squeaky pop.
Name the two products when magnesium reacts with steam.[2]
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Magnesium oxide and hydrogen.
Answers: Properties of metals
- 1. Any three: good conductor of electricity; good conductor of heat; malleable; ductile; shiny; high melting point; high density.
- 2. Zinc sulfate and hydrogen. A lighted splint gives a squeaky pop.
- 3. Magnesium oxide and hydrogen.