What would be the limiting factor of the acid in a experiment between magnesium and sulphuric acid?
The acid will react with the metal producing hydrogen gas and a salt. For a soluble salt this would carry on until either all of the magnesium or acid had reacted – it would depend on their relative amounts as to which one went first. However, this does NOT apply for Mg and H2SO4 because the salt that results from the reaction (MgSO4) is rather insoluble. What will happen is that the reaction will start, as normal, but then stop as a layer of insoluble magnesium sulphate builds up on the metal protecting it from further attack. So maybe the limiting factor is the surface area of the magnesium?
