Reactivity series of Metals and Displacement reactions

Copper and Sulphate had been dating a while. A new metal moves into the neighbourhood. Zinc, he was very attractive. More attractive for sulphate than poor faithful copper. So sulphate went off and started dating Zinc. Copper atoms are left behind and form copper metal.

Here is why this crazy partner swapping occurs!

Here is an animation showing the molecular details of displacement reactions.