Get the Iron out--of Your Breakfast Cereal

Introduction

They both have some of the very same materials in them. It might seem odd to compare a bowl of cornflakes into a pile of dirt. But science might help us find one of the most common elements on Earth on your cereal: iron.

 iron rich cereals


Though iron only makes up less than 5 percent of their mass on Earth, it's found in a lot of areas: stones, cereal--and in your blood! It's also the most frequently used metal in the world; it constitutes a lot of steel, that will be a mixture of iron and other ingredients.

Wallpaper

If you've ever seen rocks or dirt that have a red or orange tint to them, they probably include iron; iron tends to rust when it's exposed to oxygen, resulting in that rusty reddish shade on old metallic objects--or stones! Iron also has an important role in our own bodies.

And it's so important for our bodies to have sufficient iron which some food manufacturers set a dash of it into other foods products--such as fortified iron with breakfast cereal. (Obviously it would not be healthy to consume iron by itself, so stick to getting your everyday dose through food and vitamins.)

Like many alloys, iron is magnetic, so in case you have a strong enough magnet, you will have the ability to pick this up. Are you going to manage to pick up your box of cereal only by magnetic force ? No, since it doesn't contain enough iron for your magnetism to overpower gravity pulling the weight of all that cereal down. But we are going to discover a way to remove--or"extract"--the iron with that cereal and pick it up using a magnet.

Materials

• Breakfast cereal which contains iron, for example fortified cornflakes (check the label to see how much iron each serving contains--the more the better!)
• Bowl and spoon (or mortar and pestle)
• Magnet (as strong as possible)
• White piece of newspaper
• Resealable zip-top bag (optional)
• Water (optional)

Planning

• Attempt passing the magnet over the batter. Are they pulled up by the magnet? Why not?

Process

• Crush the cereal using the back of a spoon, pestle or other firm kitchen utensil. Keep crushing it till it becomes a fine powder (the finer you can get it, the easier it's going to be to separate out the iron particles).

• Carefully pour the powder on the white piece of paper at a thin layer.

• Run the magnet closely over the surface of the cereal powder. Is your magnet picking up any black particles? Those are bits of iron! (If you are not collecting any, ensure your powder is good enough and try running the magnet through itotherwise, you might require a stronger magnet.)

• Just how much iron did you get out of the cereal?

• if you would like to attempt and get more iron, carefully pour the cereal into the resealable plastic bag.

• Fill the bag chock full of water (warm water works well).

• Carefully seal the bag and gently swish the liquid round until the cereal powder has dissolved.

• Gently insert the magnet into the bag (in case your magnet includes a handle, carefully transfer it around without spilling the liquid; in case your magnet does not have a handle, you can discard it into the bag and reseal it).

• inspect the magnet's surface--were you can amass additional iron?

• Extra: try this activity with different kinds of cereals and determine whether you amass more or less iron. Compare your findings with the nutrition facts labels on the boxes.

Observations and results

What happened when you ran into the magnet across the whole cereal flakes? What happened when you passed the magnet across the crushed cereal powder? Just how much iron were you able to extract out of your cereal? Can you to acquire more by dissolving the cereal powder ? Check the nutrition facts label to see how much iron every serving actually comprises (keep in mind that this tabletop project may not have the ability to acquire all of the iron from this cereal).

However, when you crush the cereal down, it helps to free up the iron particles, so they can be picked up by the magnet (dissolving the other areas of the cereal frees up the iron more).

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