Question

Steel is made by heating iron ore with carbon. Iron ore is a reddish-brown rock that contains iron oxide. Steel is dark gray in color and is composed mostly of iron with only a small amount of carbon. Steel is stronger than iron and resists rusting unlike iron. Sometimes small amounts of other metals, such as chromium, molybdenum, or nickel, are added to steel, which makes it even harder, stronger, or more rust-resistant than iron.

a. Based on the information provided, explain why steel is considered a synthetic material.

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Answer 1

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Step-by-step explanation:

You might think of iron as a hard, strong metal tough enough to support bridges and buildings, but that's not pure iron. What we have there is alloys of iron (iron combined with carbon and other elements), which we'll explain in more detail in a moment. Pure iron is a different matter altogether. Consider its physical properties (how it behaves by itself) and its chemical properties (how it combines and reacts with other elements and compounds).

Physical properties

Pure iron is a silvery-white metal that's easy to work and shape and it's just soft enough to cut through (with quite a bit of difficulty) using a knife. You can hammer iron into sheets and draw it into wires. Like most metals, iron conducts electricity and heat very well and it's very easy to magnetize.

Chemical properties

The reason we so rarely see pure iron is that it combines readily with oxygen (from the air). Indeed, iron's major drawback as a construction material is that it reacts with moist air (in a process called corrosion) to form the flaky, reddish-brown oxide we call rust. Iron reacts in lots of other ways too—with elements ranging from carbon, sulfur, and silicon to halogens such as chlorine.