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American Chemical Society holds annual Metallurgy event

Every spring, the Stevens chapter of the American Chemical Society holds a metallurgy event, where students can learn about metals, alloys, and the reactions between them. This event took place this past Tuesday in Bissinger. It began around 8:30 p.m. and lasted for a couple of hours. The American Chemical Society does not have that many people, but this event attracted more than fifteen students interested in seeing the different chemical reactions being displayed.

The event was organized into a number of stations, each focusing on a different aspect of metallurgy. One station was called “Silver and Gold Pennies”. There, members of ACS heated some beakers and demonstrated the galvanization of pennies. The process involves putting pennies and some zinc ingots in water. The beaker is heated until the zinc melts and dissolves. Then, the zinc is redeposited on the copper pennies. As a result of the process, attendees walked away with shiny, galvanized pennies. Another station was analyzing the iron in breakfast cereals. Students would mix cereal with water, and then drop in a magnet to see how much iron content there was. Yet another station had dry ice, which students put on metal spoons, causing them to emit weird sounds.

The chemical reactions demonstrated interested the attendees, and is one of the many events the American Chemical Society holds throughout the year. Those interested in chemistry, even students who are not chemical engineering or chemistry majors, found this event to be particularly fun and interesting.

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