The purpose of this lab was to introduce students to specific heat of water and
metals along with cooling curves. Specific heat is the amount of energy
needed to raise a given mass of a substance 1 degree Celsius. The first
part of this lab involved students mixing hot and cold water in a calorimeter
and calculating the heat energy of the water from the equation Q=m*c*T
change. The second part of this lab involved heating water and ethyl
alcohol to 60 degrees Celsius, putting each in a calorimeter, and having
students create a cooling curve for the two substances and comparing how well
they hold heat. The third part involved finding a specific heat of a metal
(zinc and copper, also aluminum or other metals could be used). The mass of the metal was taken, it was heated in
boiling water for several minutes, then put in a calorimeter with twice the mass
of cool water as the sample. The final temperature reading was taken and
specific heat of the metals were calculated and compared to actual measurements
(zinc= 0.386 J/g C, copper= 0.387 J/g C) by using the equation:
m metal*c metal*T change metal = m water*c water*T change water.