Today we started to look at heat capacity, specific heat, and change in temperature. We did a lab where we separately heated 25ml of water, rubbing alcohol, and vegetable oil, as well as 50 ml of water and measured the temperature every 30 seconds. After the lab, we took a look at all three lab groups results and discussed what we saw. We also introduced the new formula q=mCpΔT which will be haunting us for the next couple of weeks. q = heat, m = mass, C = Specific heat and T= temperature. The funny triangle thing is the greek letter delta and means "change in".
Homework for this week is to do a lab report for today's lab.
Be sure to include your original hypothesis for which material would change temperature the most.
For the data analysis portion of the lab report, create one graph with four slopes representing the four materials that were tested in class. So, this graph would have a line for water, rubbing alcohol, vegetable oil and 50ml water.
Also take the averages of the "change in temperature" data that we had on the board and use that to determine the amount of heat each substance absorbed in 5 minutes. Remember, you'll need to use the formula for density to find the mass for each material.
For the conclusion, be sure to relate it back to your hypothesis and include the order in which the materials changed in temperature, as well as the order in which they absorbed heat.
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"Science Jim" Mueller
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