Oxidation of iron and copper

Many of our most used tools and machines are made from metals and alloys that corrode easily in the presence of water and oxygen. The question I asked myself was how quickly certain metals oxidized with varying levels of moisture and oxygen, and what kind of molecules would spawn from the oxidation process. The initial idea was to measure the mass of formed metal oxide on various metals, with iron being the focus of my research. Alkaline metals were too dangerous for this experiment, and many of the transition metals were difficult to obtain, so the only metals researched were iron and copper. After a few weeks of measuring, I noticed different colours of rust forming on the iron. This inspired me to do further research and experimentation on the properties of iron oxides, such as the different kinds of rust and their electrical conductivity.