Peter looked on his cereal box, he saw that it read 'contains added iron.'

Question

Peter wanted to see the iron in his food.

Peter got out a magnet, and the iron came to the top of the flakes. They were tiny pieces of black.

Why did the iron come to the top of the flakes?

Answer 1

I think that the iron came to the top of the flakes because when iron is attracted to a magnet they are raised up to the surface. I know that, but I need help on the force that pulled them up to the surface, and another question I was stuck on:

Why were the tiny iron pieces black?

Was it because when two elements combine they turn to black from the chemical reaction, because originally Iron the element is grey. But it didn't say a compound, so the iron is an element right? So why are the pieces black :S please help, i'm confused!!

Answer 2

Since this is not my area of expertise, I searched Google under the key words "cereal iron" to get these possible sources:

http://chemistry.about.com/cs/howtos/ht/ironfromcereal.htm
http://littleshop.physics.colostate.edu/Try%20At%20Home/IronCereal.htm
http://www.mcrel.org/whelmers/whelm07.asp
http://chemmovies.unl.edu/chemistry/beckerdemos/BD007.html
http://74.125.95.132/search?q=cache:yOsB-qLQ7MwJ:studentorgs.vanderbilt.edu/vsvs/New%2520VSVS%2520Site/Web%2520Lessons%25202006/Iron%2520in%2520Cereal/for%2520web/Iron%2520in%2520Cereal%2520Training.pdf+cereal+iron&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=13&gl=us&client=safari

(I learned something new too.)

In the future, you can find the information you desire more quickly, if you use appropriate key words to do your own search. Also see http://hanlib.sou.edu/searchtools/.

I hope this helps. Thanks for asking.