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Miss Cooper
Purpose: To determine the specific heat of a metal.
Background:
Thermochemistry: study of heat changes that occur during chemical and physical changes
Specific heat: amount of heat needed to raise the temperature of 1 gram of a substance 1 degree C;
Units: J / g oC (Joules per gram-degree Celecius)
Prcedures:
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10.
Name: __________________________
Period: _____
Data:
Metal used
Mass of metal
Mass of water
Temperature of water in hot water bath
Initial temperature of water in foam cup
Maximum temperature of metal + water in cup
Change in temperature of water in cup (calc-1)
Change in temperature of metal (calc-2)
Heat gained by water (calc-3)
Heat lost by metal (calc-4)
Specific heat of metal (calc-5)
Accepted value
Error (calc-6)
% Error (calc-7)
Calculations: (reminder: show all units and cancellations, use correct number of sig figs)
1.
2.
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6.
Error
9. % Error
What was the least precise measurement from this experiment (fewest decimal places): the mass of metal,
the volume of water in the cup, the mass of water in the cup, or temperature of the metal?
The heat gained by the water was determined by first calculating the
temperature change of the water in the cup (11.7 C) and plugging this
into the equation q = (mass) (temp change) (specific heat).
B. What two measured values were necessary?
The two measured values necessary were the mass of the water
(99.348 g) and the temperature change of water in cup (11.7 C).
C. What other value was necessary?
Explain why you needed to determine the heat gained by the water.
Explain how you used the heat gained by water to find the specific heat of the metal.
The value for heat gained by the water was negated, which became
the heat lost by the metal. The specific heat was then calculated using
the formula ( c = (q) / (mass)(temp change) ). We plugged in the
value for heat lost in the q value.
5.
Some possible sources of error in this experiment could have been that
the metal lost some heat in the transfer between the test tube and the
water in the cup, or that the water temperature was recorded prior to
reaching the maximum temperature.
6.
A. Is it reasonable to assume that the foam cup absorbed some of the heat from the metal?
B. If yes, how would this affect your experimental value for the specific heat of the metal? Explain.
The foam cup is better to use for this experiment because its specific
heat is higher than that of metal or glass, and it would absorb less
heat, leaving less room for error.
D. What could you do to take into account any heat that the foam cup gainedwhat values would you
need to know about the cup?
In order to take into account the heat that the foam cup gained, you
would have to know the cups initial temperature, final temperature,
mass, and specific heat.
7.
You assumed that the initial temperature of the metal was the same as that of the boiling water. If the metal
was actually at a lower temperature than the water, how would your value for the specific heat be affected?
If the metal was actually at a lower temperature than the water, then
the temperature change of the metal would have been less as well.
Therefore the specific heat of the metal would have been lower.
8.
What would be necessary to find specific heat of a substance to the thousandths place?
Based on the accepted value for your metal, how much energy would be required to raise the temperature
of a 50.0 g piece of the metal from 20.0 C to 52 C?
10. Based on the accepted value for you metal, how much energy would a sample of ice have to absorb to cool
a hot piece of this metal (50.0 g sample) from 150 C to room temperature of 20.0 C?
A. It would require less energy than the metal used in this lab to
change its temperature. B. Specific heat is defined as the amount of
heat needed to raise the temperature of 1g of a substance 1 degree C.
Since the particular metal has a specific heat less than the specific
heat of aluminum (the metal used in this lab), it would require less
energy to change the temperature of the particular metal than to
change the temperature of aluminum.
14. The specific heat of most oils is 2 J/gC. If you were heating samples of water and oil with the same amount
of energy, which would heat up faster, the oil or water?
In general, liquids have a higher specific heat than solids. This affects
climate in that it is easy for glaciers and ice at the poles to melt.
16. A disc of wax has several hot metal samples placed on it. The samples are of different metals. They are all
at the same temperature and have the same mass and contact area with the wax. How will the heat capacity
of each metal affect the rate at which it melts the wax. Explain.
The metals with lower specific heats will melt the wax at a faster rate.
This is because metals with lower specific heats heat faster than
metals with higher specific heats. The metals with low specific heats
will have warmed enough to melt the wax before the high specific heat
metals.
17. Consider a cup that will be used to hold a hot beverage. Would it be best to have the material of the cup to
have a high or low specific heat? Explain.
It would be best for the cups material to have a high specific heat. If
the cup had a high specific heat, then the beverage would stay hot for
a longer period of time, and it would keep the persons hand from
being burnt by the heat.
18. When cooking food on a stove in a pan, would is be best to have a pan with high or low specific heat?
Explain.