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Specific Heat Capacity: Heating Up

Purposes

To determine the specific heat capacity of various substances

To potentially identify materials by their specific heat capacity

Set Up

Obtain a thermometer, two styrofoam cups, some string or fishing line

and a metal cylinder.

Measurements

Description of object: Run 1 Run 2

The mass of the styrofoam cup mc mc

The mass of the styrofoam cup with water mc+w mc+w

The mass of the water mc+w- mc mw mw

The mass of the object mx mx

The initial temperature of the object Tix Tix

The start temperature of the water Tiw Tiw

The hihest final temperature of the water

and objectTf Tf

Procedure

1! "ass the #tyrofoam cups alone

2! $btain boilin water in a plastic bea%er

&! $btain room temperature water' put into #tyrofoam cup! Record its Temp!(! "ass the #tyrofoam cups + room temperature water!

)! *ut the metal object in the boilin water!! ,ait two minutes! Record Temperature immediately before doin #tep !

! Rapidly transfer the object to the cup with water!.! /ap the cup with the second cup and water and watch the temperature rise!

0! Record the hihest temperature reached by the object and the water in thetable above!

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Theory

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Calculations

*Note that the specific heat capacity of water, cw, is 4.18 Joules/(gram K)

irst law of thermodynamics: nery is conserved! 3eat is conserved! The objectcooled down! The water warmed up! The object lost heat! The water ained heat!

The heat lost by the object to the water is e4ual to the heat ained by the water!

3eat is measured in calories! The letter 5 is used for heat in calories!

cx"etal 61 7 8888888888 9#how formula with letters' substitution' solvin and finalans!

cx"etal 627 8888888888 9#how formula with letters' substitution' solvin and final

ans!

;f you can determine the material' then wor% out the percentae error for yourexperiment usin the table below #how formula' values used' etc!

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< rror "etal 61 7 88888888

< rror "etal 62 7 88888888

Conclusion: ,rite a short conclusion indicatin what went well or not so well' howlab could be improved' li%ely sources of human and systematic error' and expected

or unexpected results

Taken from the College of Micronesia Physics

http://shark.comfsm.fm/~dleeling/physics/specificheat.html

and Front Range Community College

http://frcc.cc.co.us/docs/cms/0!"P#$%&'P(C)F)C"#(*T"C*P*C)T$"+F"M(T*,'"%00-.pdf

http://shark.comfsm.fm/~dleeling/physics/specificheat.htmlhttp://shark.comfsm.fm/~dleeling/physics/specificheat.html