Law of Specific Heats Lab Report

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Experiment No. 6

Experiment on Law of Specific Heats

Introduction

Heat is a form of energy. It can never be created nor destroyed but it can be

transformed into other forms thus, it is conserved [1]. The higher the temperature of a

material, the more energy it possesses. As heat is absorbed by materials, their atoms

start to vibrate. These vibrations increases as the temperature rises.

Heat capacity is the amount of heat required to change the temperature of a

substance by one degree which is expressed as joules per Kelvin (J/K). It is an extensive

property, meaning it is dependent on the quantity of the material. On the other hand, both

specific heat capacity and molar heat capacity are intensive properties. Specific heat

capacity is the heat capacity per unit mass expressed in (J/g-K) while molar heat capacity

is the heat capacity per mole of a substance expressed in (J/mol-K).

Given the molar heat capacity or the specific heat for a pure substance, it is

possible to calculate the amount of heat required to change the temperature of a

substance by a given amount [2].

Methodology

The apparatus and materials used in this experiment are Styrofoam cup, 1-L

beaker, test tubes, test tube holder, thermometer, hot plate and analytical balance. The

metals used are zinc, iron and copper.

For this experiment, the water bath was prepared first to allow to it boil while the

next steps of the procedure were being executed. The beaker was filled with enough

water and was placed in a hot plate to boil. Twenty to forty grams of zinc metals were

weighed in the analytical balance. The density of the zinc was determined by water

displacement. The zinc metals were placed in a graduated cylinder with 40 mL of water

and the initial and final volume of the water was recorded. Figure 1 shows the water

displacement of the zinc metals. The zinc metals were dried completely and were placed

in a large dry test tube. Then, the test tube was placed in the boiling water bath for 20-25

minutes until the temperature of the metals was near the boiling point of water. The metals

in the test tube were ensured to be beneath water level in the water bath for them to be

heated evenly, as shown in Figure 1. The initial temperature of the metals were measured

by placing the thermometer inside the test tube, touching the metals. The same procedure

was done with the copper and iron metal.

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