Question

You probably heard that Faraday was Davy's assistant in his early days. They once had a competition of electrolysis.
The winner is decided by the one who gets higher amount of metal to be deposited. They both passed the same amount of current for the same amount of time.
Faraday used Silver and Davy used Copper. Who won?
(Atomic weight of silver = 108gm, Atomic weight of copper = 63.6 gm)

• A. Both are equal
• B. Faraday
• C. Davy
• D. Both lost!

Answer 1

The correct option is B Faraday

To find the winner here, we will need to look at the Faraday's second law.
It states that the amount of material deposited for two metals keeping the amount of current the same will be directly proportional to their equivalent weights
So, all we need to do is to find the equivalent weight of silver and copper.
Silver has an atomic weight of 108 gm.
To find the equivalent we need to know the half-reaction and divide the molar weight by the number of electrons released or absorbed.
$Ag\to A{g}^{+}+e^{-}$
Equivalent weight = $\frac{108}{1}=108gm$
Similarly, $Cu\to C{u}^{2+}+2e^{-}$
Equivalent weight = $\frac{63.6}{2}=31.8gm$
So, it is clear that Faraday won by a great margin. And no wonder. He invented this law!