Specific Heat Lab

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Specific Heat By: James Ott Date: January 1, 2013 PURPOSE/INTRODUCTION The purpose of this experiment is to measure the temperature of metals, and estimate the specific heat for a metal. This experiment is also an introduction to the use of a calorimeter. This is a good way of using a known amount of metal and a known temperature change. The calculation for finding specific heat of a metal is: q=s x m x Δt MATERIALS Materials required complete the lab: * Test tube * Bunsen burner * 100 g Iron (Fe) shot * Thermometer * 250 ml beaker with 150 ml Water (H2O) in beaker at room temperature * Calorimeter with 100 ml Water (H2O) at room temperature * 100 g Aluminum (Al) shot * 100 g Copper (Cu) shot METHOD * Set up one test tube * Add 100g Iron shot and thermometer * Setup a 250 ml beaker with 150 ml room temperature water * Place filled test tube in beaker * Setup a Bunsen burner * Hover beaker over Bunsen burner until thermometer reads 100˚C * While beaker is warming, set up calorimeter with 100 ml of room temperature water (20˚C) * When metal temperature reaches 100˚C, remove from beaker and pour liquid into calorimeter, close lid and read thermometer reading * Record reading * Repeat above steps for other two metals DATA Metal | Initial Temp. (˚C) | Final Temp.(˚C) | Final Water Temp. in Calorimeter (˚C) | Initial Water Temp. in Calorimeter (˚C) | Metal Temp. Change with Metal (˚C) | Iron Shot | 20 | 100 | 28 | 20 | 8 | Aluminum Shot | 20 | 100 | 34 | 20 | 14 | Copper Shot | 20 | 100 | 27 | 20 | 7 | Results The results from this experiment were interesting. When heating metals to 100˚C , the boiling point of water, with a Bunsen burner is a slow process. Once the metal is to temperature, the metal is poured into a calorimeter, and sealed with a thermometer to

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