• Candelestine@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Because the rust is very fluffy, while the iron is very dense. So a very small volume of iron can turn into a large volume of rust.

    The iron is disappearing though. Just slowly. You could tell if you weighed it with a sensitive scale.

    • DickFiasco@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      To add to this, rust is only about 70% iron by mass, with the remainder being oxygen. So the rust basically weighs a bit more than just the iron used to create it.

    • efiler@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Just want to add, that rust is not pure iron oxide(? can’t do chemistry in english) but also contains water molecules