Edexcel IGCSE Chemistry 2.10 testing oxygen percentage
Practise oxygen-percentage questions by calculating volume changes, explaining water rise and suggesting accuracy improvements.
- Syllabus
- First assessment 2019
- Course
- Chemistry 4CH1
Practise oxygen-percentage questions by calculating volume changes, explaining water rise and suggesting accuracy improvements.
A student uses the reaction between iron and oxygen to find the percentage of oxygen in air.
The diagram shows the apparatus the student uses.

State why the iron powder needs to be wet.
water is needed for iron to rust / react
ALLOW reaction needs water (and oxygen)
ALLOW increases rate of reaction
State the colour of the compound formed in the reaction between iron and oxygen.
brown (coating on iron)
ALLOW red-brown /
orange-brown / orange /
orange-red
IGNORE red alone
Explain the advantage of using iron powder rather than pieces of iron.
An explanation that links the following two points M1 (the powder has) a larger surface area
M2 so the iron will rust quicker/ the reaction will be faster / the results are (obtained) more quickly
IGNORE references to the
collision theory
The syringe in the diagram shows the reading at the end of the experiment.
Complete table 1 to show the readings on the syringe.
Give both values to the nearest 1 cm3.

table 1
| Reading | Volume / cm3 |
|---|---|
| syringe reading at start | 81 |
| syringe reading at end | 16 |
| change in volume | 65 |
Allow:
- error carried forward on the syringe reading at start if the syringe reading at end is read incorrectly
Marking guidance:
- Correct volumes the wrong way round scores 1.
The student repeats the experiment and obtains a different set of results.
Table 2 shows these results.
Use the results from table 2 to calculate the percentage by volume of oxygen in the air.
percentage by volume of oxygen in air = ................................ %

Table 2
- volume of oxygen = 90 - 22 = 68 cm3
- total volume at start = 260 + 90 = 350 cm3
- percentage by volume of oxygen = 68 x 100 / 350 = 19.4%
Allow:
- error carried forward from the first two steps as long as the answer is less than 100%
- any number of significant figures except 1
Marking guidance:
- Correct answer without working scores 3.
- 26.2% scores 2.
- 25.7% scores 2.
- 75.6% scores 2.
- 34.6% scores 1.