Answer to Question #149234 in General Chemistry for Randal Rodriguez

Question

Based on your field of interest mechanical engineering, choose a particular equipment or device, enumerate all metals and
metal alloys present in it, and explain the function of each.

Based on your field of interest, you are to design your own equipment or device. What is
this equipment or device? What metals of metal alloys you would prefer to use on it and
why?

Answer 1

The Eiffel Tower is made of wrought iron

It would not be an exaggeration to refer to iron as the lifeblood of our civilisation. Approximately 5 per cent of the Earth’s crust is iron. Thus, it is an incredibly easy metal to find. Pure iron is an unstable element though. At the first opportunity, it reacts with the oxygen in the air to form iron oxide.

Extracting iron from its ores uses a blast furnace. Pig iron is achieved from the first stage of the blast furnace which can be further refined to obtain pure iron. This iron often ends up in steels and other alloys. Almost 90 per cent of manufactured metals are ferrous metals.