Question

Classify the chemical reaction:

The element iron reacts with copper sulfate to form the element copper and the compound iron sulfate.

Fe space plus space CuSO subscript 4 space rightwards arrow FeSO subscript 4 space plus space Cu

Answer 1

Single replacement reaction

Step-by-step explanation:

Question 1

In this question, we're given that copper sulfate reacts with iron. The products are copper and iron sulfate. In the context of this problem, we don't need to know the exact oxidation state of iron, but for the purposes of visualizing it, let's assume that iron has an oxidation state of +2 and let's look at the balanced chemical equation:

`Fe(s)+CuSO_4(aq)\rightarrow Cu(s)+FeSO_4(aq)`

Notice that iron metal replaces (or displaces) copper metal from the copper sulfate salt. Whenever this is the case (a metal replaces another metal in a salt), we have a single replacement or single displacement reaction. Both descriptions are completely acceptable.