PHY400 – Lab 4 – Specific Heat Capacity

Pre-Lab Questions 4

Topic: Specific Heat Capacity

Objective: To enable the students to state and differentiate important concepts and terms
so that Experiment 4 can be carried out meaningfully.

After answering these questions, the students will be able to

1. define heat capacity and specific heat of a substance.

2. describe the method of mixtures to determine the specific heats.
3. write an equation relating the variables involved in determining the specific heats
of a metal.
4. state the underlying conservation law used in determining c.

PRE-LAB QUESTIONS 4

Answer the following questions and submit your group answer to the instructor.

1. Define heat capacity and specific heat of a substance? State the SI units for these
quantities.

2. What is the method of mixtures and how is it used to determine the specific heat?

3. What are the possible sources of error of the mixture method? Would this be
random or systematic errors?

4. A metal of mass mx with an initial high temperature Tx is added to water in a

calorimeter, where both the water (mw) and the calorimeter and stirrer (mcs) are at
an initial temperature of Tw which is lower than Tx. The mixture of metal and
water inside the calorimeter is stirred until the system is in thermal equilibrium at
temperature Tf. By assuming that all the heat from the metal is transferred to the
water, calorimeter and stirrer without any heat loss to the surrounding, show that
the specific heat of the metal is given by:

……………1

where cx, cw and Ccs are the specific heats of the metal, water and calorimeter plus
stirrer respectively.

5. What is the underlying conservation law used to derive equation 1 in step 3.

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 PHY400 – Lab 4 – Specific Heat Capacity

Experiment 4

Topic: Specific Heats

Objective: To determine the specific heat of a metal.

Learning Outcomes of Experiment 1

After doing the experiment, the students will be able to

1. determine the specific heat of a metal by the mixtures method.

2. calculate the uncertainty of the experimental results.
3. write a report on the experiment.
4. state the appropriate and reasonable sources of error or factors that contributed to the
uncertainties in the result.

Introduction

Different substance require different amount of heat to produce certain temperature

change. Heat capacity is the amount of heat needed to produce a unit temperature change
of a given substance. Specific heat which characterizes a particular substance is the
amount of heat required to increase the temperature of 1 kg of the substance by 1 C or 1
K.

The relationship between the heat supplied (Q) to the mass (m), the temperature increase
(T) and the specific heat (c) of the substance is given by the following equation.

Q = mc T ……………(2)

The quantity Q in equation (1) can also denote the heat loss from mass m which will
result in a decrease in temperature T.

The specific heat of a substance can be determined by the method of mixtures where a
hotter substance will be mixed with a substance at lower temperature. The hotter
substance will lose heat while the colder substance will gain heat until they reach a
common equilibrium temperature. By applying the conservation of energy to the mixed
system the unknown variable such as the specific heat can be determined provided other
variables such as masses and temperature changes are known.

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 PHY400 – Lab 4 – Specific Heat Capacity

Objective: To determine the specific heat of a metal.

Instructions

1. Discuss with your group how you are going to determine the specific heat of a given
metal block by using a mixture method.

2. Electronic balance, calorimeter and stirrer, thermometer, boiling water and water at
room temperature are available to be used in this experiment.

3. Decide how the measurements are to be carried out and the number of measurements
that you need to take.

4. Tabulate your data and calculate the specific heat of the metal block including the
uncertainty of the final result.

5. Hand in your group report at the end of the lab period.

4. All groups will be scheduled to present and defend their procedures and results of
certain experiments in class.

Table 1: Specific Heats

Substance

Aluminium 921
Brass 385
Copper 389
Iron 460
Water 4186

Format of the Laboratory Report

1. Objective : State the objective of the experiment.

2. Apparatus : State the instruments used.
3. Theory : State the formula that you used to calculate the specific heat of the
metal block.
4. Procedures : Describe the steps that you take to perform the experiment.
5. Data : Present the data appropriately. Use correct and consistent
significant figures. State the units and uncertainties of each quantity.
6. Results : Show the calculations of the specific heat of the metal block.
7. Conclusions : Indicate what is measured, the uncertainties and the sources of
uncertainties.

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 PHY400 – Lab 4 – Specific Heat Capacity

Post- Lab Questions

1. State the assumptions in this experiment.

2. From your experimental results, what can you conclude about the material of the
metal block based on the values of specific heats given in Table 1.

3. If some hot water is still on the metal block when you transfer it into the water in
the calorimeter, how would the experimental value of the specific heat have been
affected?

4. If some water at room temperature in the calorimeter had splashed out when the
heated metal block is put into the calorimeter, how would the experimental value of
the specific heat have been affected?

5. In solar heating applications, heat energy is stored in some medium until it is

needed. Should this medium have a low or high specific heat? Explain.