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Why do cars rust?

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Anonymous

13y ago
Updated: 10/19/2022

Its because they are made out of iron (Fe)/ steel which is a corrosive metal, it reacts with the oxygen in the air to produce iron oxide and then this layer flakes away to reveal more iron which then does the same thing again (and so on, so forth)

if there is salt water present, it will speed up the process

only iron 'rusts', other sorts of metals 'corrode' (corrosion)

you can prevent rusting or corrosion by electroplating the object with a less reactive metal such as zinc or aluminum (although these are more reactive in the reactive series, they do not react with oxygen or water as much)

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Wiki User

13y ago

What else can I help you with?