This is probably a dumb question and I don't even know which category to ask it in.?

Question

I want to know if there is an easy way to tell the difference between brass and copper?

Answer 1

Because brass has tin in it, we can detect that brass when we heat a filing will have tin boil off from the  metal, leaving behind the copper.

As the tin concentration rises, the colour of the brass goes lighter.

We can use brass for welding, because the alloy flows and bonds to other clean metals... IE it 'tins'.

Answer 2

copper is a natural element

brass is copper and zinc combined

bronze is brass plus tin

there are approx 90 odd grades of brass

Answer 3

There should be two distinct color differences. Brass is a gold color and copper is copper color (more orange in it I guess is easier to describe it). Also brass will not turn green as will copper (which is known as patina) and brass will just get dull.

I hope that helps somehow to answer your questions, it's kinda hard to explain.

Answer 4

there are two types of brass one is red brass the other is yellow brass.  brass is heavier in weight than copper. copper is made from a mixture of tin and bronz also brass is softer than copper

Answer 5

Copper is usually duller in color. When new copper has a reddish tone to it

Brass is usually shinier with a yellow almost gold color. Brass is softer than copper.

If you can't tell by looking, try the eureka test.

Find out which material is more dense.

Put a pound in a bowl of water

The more dense material will displace less water.

Brass is 8.4g/cm^3

Cu is 8.96 g/cm^3 (denser than brass)