International chemistry
The following passages have been taken from science textbooks. Read them carefully.
Passage 1
Quand on melange de l’acide sulfurique (H2SO4) avec du cuivre carbonate (CuCO3), le cuivre
carbonate commence à pétiller. Il pétille parce que l’un des produits de cette réaction est un gaz qui
s’echappe. Ce gaz est du dioxide de carbone, qui est composè de carbone et d’oxygene. On note
l’equation de la réaction entre l’acide sulfurique et le cuivre carbonate:
H2SO4 + CuCO3  CuSO4 + CO2 + H2O
A
B
Quel est le produit de la réaction entre MgCO3 et HCl?
Quel acide réagirait avec MgCO3 pour produire MgSO4?
Passage 2
Wenn verdünnte Schwefelsäure(H2SO4) Kupferkarbonat (CuCO3) zugefügt wird, beginnt sie zu
schäumen. Der Grund ist, dass eines der Reaktionsprodukte ein Gas ist, welches entweicht. Dieses
Gas ist Karbondioxyd, welches die Elemente Karbon und Sauerstoff enhält. Wir können die
reaction zwischen Schwefelsäure und Kupferkarbonat in der folgenden Gleichung erfassen:
H2SO4 + CuCO3  CuSO4 + CO2 + H2O
A
B
Was wird in einer Reaktion zwischen MgCO3 und HCl produziert?
Welche Säure produziert MgSO4 wenn sie mit MgCO3 reagiert?
1
2
3
4
What are the pages from these textbooks about? Summarise their contents in a few sentences.
Answer the questions contained in the French textbook.
What can you say about the answers to the questions in the German textbook?
Think about these textbooks from different countries. What do they teach you about the
language of science?
Write a scientific sentence which describes the reaction between copper carbonate and
sulphuric acid (forming copper sulphate, carbon dioxide and water) so that it could be
understood by a person who does not understand or speak any English.
5
Reactions in symbols
Since atoms in a reaction cannot be destroyed, when we write a symbol equation we need to make
sure we have the same number of each type of atom on each side of the equation.
For example, the following equation is not correct: it is unbalanced.
Zn + HCl  ZnCl2 + H2
The formula for zinc chloride is ZnCl2 so we cannot change that. The formula for hydrogen is H2
and we cannot change that. We can only put extra numbers in front of the formulae:
Zn + 2HCl  ZnCl2 + H2
The equation is now balanced.
The formulae for some compounds are given in the table. Note that some atoms are always grouped
together. This is shown by brackets. The small number after the brackets shows how many of these
groups you have. So (PO4)2 shows that you have two phosphate (PO4) groups – a total of two
phosphorus atoms and eight oxygen atoms.
Name
calcium chloride
calcium phosphate
copper carbonate
copper nitrate
copper sulphate
ethanoic acid (also
called acetic acid)
hydrochloric acid
1
2
Formula
Name
Formula
Name
Formula
CaCl2
magnesium carbonate
MgCO3
sodium chloride
NaCl
Ca3(PO4)2
magnesium chloride
MgCl2
sodium ethanoate
CH3COONa
CuCO3
magnesium nitrate
Mg(NO3)2
magnesium phosphate
Mg3(PO4)2
sodium
hydrogencarbonate
NaHCO3
Cu(NO3)2
CuSO4
magnesium sulphate
MgSO4
sodium stearate
CH3(CH2)16COONa
CH3COOH
nitric acid
HNO3
sodium sulphate
Na2SO4
phosphoric acid
H3PO4
stearic acid
CH3(CH2)16COOH
sulphuric acid
H2SO4
HCI
What are the products of the reaction between a metal carbonate and an acid?
Use the formulae in the table to help you write balanced symbol equations for the following
reactions. For each reaction, give the complete word equation as well as the balanced symbol
equation.
a
copper carbonate + sulphuric acid
b
magnesium carbonate + sulphuric acid
c
calcium carbonate + hydrochloric acid
d
magnesium carbonate + hydrochloric acid
e
copper carbonate + nitric acid
f
magnesium carbonate + nitric acid
g
sodium hydrogencarbonate + hydrochloric acid
h
sodium hydrogencarbonate + sulphuric acid
i
magnesium carbonate + phosphoric acid
j
sodium hydrogencarbonate + ethanoic acid
k
calcium carbonate + phosphoric acid
l
sodium hydrogencarbonate + stearic acid