Physics Experiment 6 Results and Discussion

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4. Results and Discussion Specific heat capacity refers to the amount of heat needed to raise or lower the temperature of a substance. This amount of heat is directly proportional to the mass of the material. In the first activity, the specific heat of a metal, in our case aluminum, was calculated (Table 1). The following formula was used: cm=mwcwT3-T1+mcccT3-T1 mmT2-T3 Where cw is the specific heat capacity of water and cc is the specific heat capacity of calorimeter. Substituting the values, we get an answer of 998.81 J/kg·C0 with a percent error of 10.98% determined by the formula: % error=theoretical-experimantalexperimental ×100 Table 1. Specific Heat of Metal Mass of Sample (mm) | 0.01655 kg | Mass of Inner Vessel of Calorimeter (mc) | 0.04723 kg | Mass of Inner Vessel of Calorimeter with Water | 0.24242 kg | Mass of Water inside the Inner Vessel of Calorimeter (mw) | 0.19519 kg | Initial Temperature of Water and Inner Vessel of Calorimeter (T1) | 330C | Initial Temperature of Sample (T2) | 860C | Equilibrium Temperature of Sample, Water, and Inner Vessel of Calorimeter (T3) | 290C | Calculated Specific Heat of Sample (cm) | 998.81 J/kg·C0 | Accepted Value of Specific Heat | 900 J/kg·C0 | % Error | 10.98% | Possible sources of error for this experiment may be due to changes in the temperature due to heat transferring to the environment and human error (wrong readings for temperature and mass). In the second activity, the latent heat of fusion of ice was computed (Table 2). Latent heat is associated with a phase change. When a substance changes from a phase to another, a certain amount of heat is required. This amount is dependent on the type of material used and the nature of its phase change. This formula was used: Lf=mwcwT2-T3+mcccT2-T3-micecw(T3-T1)mice The result was 278 701.71 J/kg with a percent error

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