Thank u Specific Heats Of Materials EQUIPMENT Bunsen Burner

Specific Heats Of Materials EQUIPMENT: Bunsen Burner, 300ml or 400 ml Beaker, Kit #CA13A, Scale, String or Tongs, Styrofoam Cup, Digital Thermometer INTRODUCTION: The amount of heat that is required to raise (or lower) the temperature of an object may be expressed by the following equation: Q = mC(Tr-Ti) [Eqn. 1] Where: the mass of the object m C Tr T the specific heat of the material the final temperature of the object the initial temperature of the object In a closed system, when two components at different temperatures are placed together, the overall temperature will equalize in a relatively short period of time. What this means is that the heat lost by the hotter object will correspond to the heat gained by the cooler object. Thus the heat lost by object #1 will be: Q = mi Ci (Til-T) [Eqn. 2] and the heat gained by object #2 will be: m2 C2 (Tr-Tz) [Eqn. 3] In the experiment that follows, object #1 will correspond to a quantity of metal that has been heated in a bath of boiling water. Object #2 is a measured quantity of water at room temperature. Both of these are placed together in an insulated container, and the temperature is allowed to stabilize at Tr. Using this experiment, the specific heats of the various metals may be determined by setting Eqn. I equal to Eqn.2 since the heat lost by the piece of metal will be equal to the heat gained by the water. This equation may then be solved algebraically for the unknown specific heat of the metal, i.e m, T-T m, T, T [Eqn. 4

Solution

1) The gretest source of error in this experiment is the temperature measurement. This is because the temperature appears 4 times in the equation 4 and the errors in each measurement will just add up in the final value. Also there seems to be least number of significant digits in the temperature data so it is quite uncertain. Other sources of error are: 1. The mass measurement, and 2. The specific heat of water has been assumed constant (1.00 unit) here which is not true. The specific heat of water varies with temperature which should be taken into account.

2) The experiment can be improved by noting the exact value of specific heat of water at the relevant temperature from literature and using that value to calculate the specific heat of the sample.