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How come rust built up on iron things looks like a thick crust, but somehow when it's removed it's like there's nothing gone from the original? (lemmy.world)

submitted 1 year ago by Atomdude@lemmy.world to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml

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[–] Candelestine@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

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 2 points 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.