Ib Physics Lab - Shc of Water

Aim

• To calculate the SHC of water
• To see how accurately I can measure a known quantity

Research Question

• Will the experiment carried out give us a good approximation of the SHC of water?

Hypothesis

• The result we will get as the SHC of water will not be exactly the same as the literature value, but will be a very close figure to the literature value of the SHC of water as there will be some limitations to our experiment.

Variables

Independent: temperature of water
Dependent: SHC of water
Controlled: thermometer, iron block

Equation

• M1C1ΔT = MCΔT + MCΔT

Apparatus

• Water
• Beaker
• Calorimeter
• Thermometer
• Electronic scale
• Bunsen Burner
• Iron block
• Tripod
• Heatproof mat
• Gauze

Method/Procedure

• I first measured the mass of the iron block on an electronic scale
• I then placed the block into a beaker of water, which I later placed on top of a Bunsen burner for it to boil
• While I waited for the water to boil, I weighed and measured the initial temperature of the water inside the calorimeter
• After the water boiled I quickly put the iron block into the calorimeter and started stirring the mixture until it reached thermal equilibrium
• I finally measured the final temperature of the mixture

Raw Data

Mass
±0.005g SHC
(JKg-1K-1) TInitial
(oC)
TFinal
(oC)
Iron Block 253.08 4.7x102 95 27
Water 213.66 ? 19 27
Calorimeter 152.16 3.85x102 19 27

Change in Temp.
(oC)

Iron Block 68
Water 8
Calorimeter 8

N.B. I found that the SHC of the calorimeter is 3.85x102 by finding the SHC of copper, as the calorimeter was made of copper.

Data Processing

1st I’ll have to change the masses from grams into kilograms.

Iron Block – 0.25308 Kg
Water – 0.21366 Kg
Calorimeter – 0.15216 Kg

M1C1ΔT = MCΔT + MCΔT

0.25308 x 470 x 95-27 = (0.23166 x C x 27-19) + (0.15216 x 385 x 27-19) (There’ll be no need of changing the temperature units to Kelvin, as they have the same amount