What gas is given off when a metal reacts with a dilute acid?
You get Hydrogen gas and usually a salt left over. Below is a quote from an open university course: In Section 2, acids were defined operationally by specifying their common chemical reactions. Thus, they dissolve in water and their solutions turn blue litmus red, they react with magnesium or zinc with liberation of hydrogen, and they react with calcium carbonate to give carbon dioxide. Then, in Table 8.2, we listed chemical formulae for our three common acids: hydrochloric acid is HCl, sulfuric acid isH2SO4 nitric acid is HNO3. What light do these formulae throw on the properties of acids? What chemical element do all three formulae contain? Hydrogen. This hydrogen is the hydrogen that is displaced as a gas when the acids react with magnesium or zinc. The equations for the reaction of magnesium with sulfuric and hydrochloric acids are: Mg(s) + H2SO4(aq) ‘ MgSO4(aq) + H2(g) (11.1) Mg(s) + 2HCl(aq) ‘ MgCl2(aq) + H2(g) (11.2) In these reactions, we have introduced the new state symbol ‘a
