Lab Report: Specific Heat

Ben Lehotay

Mrs. Gordon-Coy

Physics 3

Specific Heat Lab

Introduction:

In this lab the laws and properties of specific heat are being tested. We are using the basic concepts of a calorimeter to try to maintain heat in a copper/water sample. Once thermal equilibrium is reached the study is concluded and data will be compiled. Mass, specific heat and, change in temperature will be highlighted during the course of the experiment.

Hypothesis (Initial)

If heated copper is placed in water inside a homemade calorimeter, the the calorimeter will attain the heat and reach thermal equilibrium around 22.5 C.

Materials:

1. LabPro with temperature probe
2. Scale/balance w/ digital display
3. A dry cup (plastic or Styrofoam
4. Metal specimen (Copper or Brass)
5. Hot Plate for boiling metal sample
6. Room temperature water (Clean as possible)
7. Whey Boat
8. Home-Made Calorimeter
9. Glass beaker
10. Pencil and Paper for Data

Methods:

1. Locate your calorimeter to be used in experiment
2. Gather remaining essential materials
3. Heat up hot plate and fill a beaker with water, place on hot plate, and place metal sample in water
4. Fill beaker w/ 600 ml of water, weigh if desired for exact measurements, take temperature (1:1 ratio g to ml)
5. Pour water into calorimeter
6. Extract your metal (copper) sample from boiling water, take temperature
7. Carefully weigh your metal sample and place in water inside calorimeter
8. Take the temperature of the initial temperature once copper is placed in water
9. Take temperature every 2-3 minutes, and record until thermal equilibrium is reached

Results and Observations:

The calorimeter constructed attained heat very well. Once the copper was placed in the water thermal equilibrium was reached quickly (about 7 minutes). I noticed some condensation on the outside of the calorimeter, indicating that it was doing its job

Whey Boat	2.5g
Total (Boat and Cu)	21g (Cu=18.5)
600 ml of water	600g
Water (C)	21
Copper (C)	24.4
Start once Combined (C)	21.4
Final Equilibrium (C)	22.1
Time took to reach T.E.	7 min

Conclusions and Error Analysis:

1. Used the 1:1 ratio of g:ml, promoting that mass of water may not have been exact
2. Timing was off by about 15-20 seconds
3. LabPro was acting erratic and “buggy”
4. All our measurements may have been affected by error in some manner

I thought we did a good job of keeping everything neat and organized in the experiment. Mainly just general error affected the outcome potentially. Human error and mechanical error was accounted for.

I conclude that our hypothesis was accepted because the calorimeter we constructed did attain the heat at the approximated amount.

Final Thoughts:

This was our first lab of the year in Physics. I though it ran really smoothly and was well organized. Good was to apply the concepts we are learning to the real world, and I learned a lot!