You are given a hammer, a battery, a bulb, wires and a switch.
(a) How could you use them to distinguish between samples of metals and non-metals?
(b) Assess the usefulness of these tests in distinguishing between metals and non-metals.

Question

You are given a hammer, a battery, a bulb, wires and a switch.
(a) How could you use them to distinguish between samples of metals and non-metals?
(b) Assess the usefulness of these tests in distinguishing between metals and non-metals.

Accepted Answer

Metals are malleable and can be easily drown into sheets by hitting with hammer. On the other hand, if we beat non-metals they break down and they cannot be drawn into sheets as they are non-malleable. Metals are good conductors of electricity, hence they make bulb when you connect metals with a battery, wire and bulb. Similarly, if non-metals are bad conductors of electricity, they fail to light up the bulb on connecting with wire and battery.
These experiments can be helpful to demonstrate the malleability and electric conductivity of the metals and non-metals

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