this is in a test and im like freaking out i need tog et it right and if uc ant answer it can u put this in your own words?Ores must be smelted before th metals they contain can be used. In the process of smelting, an ore is mixed with other substances and then melted to seperate the useful metal from other elements the ore contains. For example, iron ores must be smelted to seperate the iron from oxygen and other substances in the ores.
The easy way to think of it is this. Ore is a bunch of different things together. Only one of them is what you want. So, you have to come up with a way to get all the Kibble separated from the Bits. In some materials, heat is the only thing necessary. Heat up the rock and out drips the pure material. Of course, there is a bit more going on there, but basically, you took the good stuff away and left the bad stuff behind. Some of the things that are used in smelting along with heat are air, coal, coke, and limestone. Hope you get an A!
Smelting ore requires no knowledge of chemistry. Archaeologists estimate that the very first metal was smelted by nomads and/or cavemen. When their campfire and charcoal smelted the tin and lead ore-rock under their fire, they were left with a shiny metal once the fire died down. The nomads quickly learned that certain rocks, when mixed with charcoal and fire, produced these metals. Smelting is the process of removing the oxide or sulfide from the metal. In the case of iron oxide, you remove the oxygen, and (in theory) you get pure iron. In order to do that, a reducing agent must be used. In old days, the reducing agent was carbon from charcoal. Later it was fossil-fuel coal, or coke. In order to make a very crude pig iron, the crushed iron ore powder and charcoal (or coal) are layered on top of one another, pancaked. They are then heated to extremely high temperatures. This causes the following reaction, which creates iron as well as carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide (smelting is considered one of the leading causes of greenhouse gas emissions): Fe2O3 + 2C --- 2Fe + CO2 + CO Although this seems simple, the iron has many impurities (which is why it's called pig iron, because it's not pure). Other materials are used to clean up the iron. Many other historic metals are created using this process (tin, lead, copper, etc.). YouTube has several videos showing the smelting process.
