Specific Heat Capacity Lab Report

Specific heat capacity refers to the amount of energy that is required to change the temperature of 1 kg of a substance by 1°C. With that in mind, there are countless practical applications that exist, both in general life and in the workplace. For instance, knowing the specific heat capacity of a steel pan decreases the probability of burning the kitchen utensil. In a controlled environment, such as an engine production plant, the specific heat capacity of numerous metals and plastics can be utilized to understand the transfer of heat throughout the engine. This results in increased efficiency and improved cooling due to an even transfer of heat. Nevertheless, the specific heat capacities of substances are useful in multiple modern heat systems

Assuming that they the metals are pure substances, it have the closest value of with Titanium, with a heat capacity of 540Jkg ⋅ ℃. This is also most likely not the metal because Titanium is have a silver color, while metal A have a gold color. Metal B, which has a grey color, was found to have a heat capacity of 528Jkg ⋅ ℃. This measurement is nearest to Wrought Iron, which has a capacity of 500Jkg ⋅ ℃. However, Wrought Iron is rough and have a dark brown color. This is most likely not the correct metal, due to the fact that metal B have a greyish color rather than a dark brown

Throughout the lab, it was evident that the experiment was inaccurate as numerous errors were observed. Firstly, the entire system was open, allowing the escape of thermal energy. When heating the water on the hot plate, the beaker was not sealed, allowing heat to escape. In the end, when measuring the final temperature of the metals, there was a loss of heat from the styrofoam cup as there was no efficient way of sealing the cup, and the cup itself will also absorb heat from the water. Despite our efforts of sealing the cup by putting another styrofoam cup above, the hole that the thermometer goes through allowed heat to escape. The loss of heat, and the absorption of heat from the styrofoam cup will increase the heat capacities of the metals that were calculated from this experiment. This is due to the fact that the escaped heat and the heat absorbed by the styrofoam cups were calculated as if they were absorbed by the metal, while in reality, they were not. Secondly, numerous assumptions were made. When allowing the metal samples to sit in the cups of room temperature water, it was assumed that over a certain amount of time, the metal would have the same temperature of the water. However, the point at which this occurred was unknown, due to the fact that heat was constantly escaping, which decreased the accuracy of the initial temperature of the metals. Additionally, it was assumed that at some point, the