Redox lab question

Quite a few people have questions about the redox lab, so let me give a hint/some guidance to everyone...

In the first part, you looked at reactivity and found Zn to be the most active metal, followed by Pb, then Cu.  I'll just use those three as an example, you will also need to include Ni and Ag in your assignment.  You measured the potential for a Zn/Pb cell, a Pb/Cu cell, and a Zn/Cu cell.  Is there a relationship between those measured potentials?  There's a relationship between those reactions, but how are cell potentials related to one another?

Zn(s) + Pb²⁺(aq)  ⇄  Pb(s) + Zn²⁺(aq)

Pb(s) + Cu²⁺(aq)  ⇄  Cu(s) + Pb²⁺(aq)

Zn(s) + Cu²⁺(aq)  ⇄  Cu(s) + Zn²⁺(aq)

Are cell potentials like kinetics (the cell potential for the overall process is determined by the lowest potential)?  Are cell potentials like equilibrium (the cell potential for the overall process is the product of the step-wise potentials)?  Or is there another relationship between the step-wise potentials and the overall potential?  When you think you see (observe) a relationship with the Zn/Pb/Cu system (hypothesis), check to see if the same relationship is true with some of the other cell combinations you measured.(test/experiment)

{Hmm, it looks like we could use the scientific method to analyze the data and results from this experiment.  Who would have guessed?!}

On your hand-in assignment for lab, the "calculated" cell potentials for pairs that are not next to each other refers to the treatment you see above.  You have measured all of the potentials for cell constructed from metals that are adjacent to each other in your activity series (step-wise potentials), so if there is a relationship between step-wise potentials and the potentials for cells constructed from metals that are not adjacent to each other in your activity series, you should be able to calculate the expected cell potential for those non-adjacent cells.

Qualitative Analysis of Metal Cations - Week 2

This week in lab you're going to be analyzing an unknown mixture of the metal cations you studied last week.  To do this, you need to look over the tests you did last week and find a way to sequentially use some or all of those tests to separate the cations.  This is NOT a "run all the tests and figure it out later" experiment, you have to have a plan.
To develop your plan, assume you are starting with a mixture of all 5 cations, and you want to separate them into 5 different containers.  The key to developing a good flow chart is the ability to separate solids from each other when multiple things precipitate.  For example, if the first step of your flow chart is "add chromate", you will precipitate all 5 cations as their chromate salts.  You have no way to separate these solids from each other, so this would be a VERY bad first step.  Look over some of the multi-step tests you did last week.  If adding some reagent causes 2 or 3 of the cations to form precipitate, and you have a way to separate those precipitates from each other (with another step in the multi-step test you performed last week), then that might be a good place to start.
As an example, what if you had a mixture of NaCl, NaNO₃, sand, and sawdust.  How could you separate them?  If you added water, the NaCl and NaNO₃ would dissolve, the sand would sink, and the sawdust would float.  That accomplishes some of the separation, but what about the dissolved salts?  If there was a reagent you could add to make chloride ions form a precipitate, like maybe Pb²⁺(aq), you would be able to separate the chloride from the nitrate.
{OK, picky people in the crowd, that doesn't exactly separate "NaCl" from "NaNO₃", but it illustrates the point!}
Given the tests you performed, there are a few different flow charts that will work to separate the 5 cations you're working with, so if you have something that's a little different from someone else, that's OK.  It would be great if you compared your flowchart to someone else's and had a discussion about the similarities and differences, it might lead you BOTH to make better flowcharts/plans.