Specific Heat of a Metal

Summary

In this lab, students were asked to design a procedure to determine an unknown metal's specific heat in order to identify the mystery metal. Each group was given two styrofoam cups (one small one big), water, a thermometer, tongs, and a beaker. Our group decided to measure the specific heat by heating the metal in boiling water, then place it into cool water, and see the temperature difference. The difference would explain the metal's gain of energy and heat. 

Set Up





Procedure

1) Obtain the materials. Set up and start heating the the hotplate, and place a beaker filled with water onto the plate. Poke a hold into the middle of the small styrofoam cup. 
2) Mass the unknown metal sample.
3) Mass the large styrofoam cup, mass the large cup filled with water, and then subtract those to get the mass of the water itself. Take the initial temperature of the water in the styrofoam cup.
4) Gently place the metal into the beaker.
5) When the water is boiling, measure the initial temperature of metal in boiling water, then immediately take the metal out using tongs and place it into the styrofoam cup set up (as seen in the pictures above). Stick the thermometer into the previously created opening. 

Calculated Specific Heat

429 J/kg degrees Celsius

Idenitifcation

Our metal is identified as copper. Though our specific heat, 429 J/kg degrees Celsius, is closer to iron and steel's specific heat (449 J/kg degrees Celsius and 450 J/kg degrees Celsius, respectively), but the metal was marked as copper, and it was the color of copper as well. An expiremental error of not allowing the water to fully reach the boiling point before taking the metal out may have occured. 

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