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

that rely on the measurement to improve the transfer of thermal energy.
By finding a substance’s heat capacity, the total amount of energy required to heat it to a certain temperature can be calculated. In return, this results in increased efficiency and accuracy when heating materials. In this lab, calculating the specific heat capacities of two unknown metal blocks allowed us to determine the metals by comparing the final results with the known heat capacities of numerous materials.
From our calculations, metal A, which has a gold color, resulted in a specific heat capacity of 546Jkg ⋅ ℃.

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

color.
Ultimately these measurements and comparisons are inaccurate.

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

temperature of the metal in the heated water would level, meaning that the temperature of the entire sample was equal. Again, it was unclear the point at which this could be observed due to heat being constantly lost. Finally, there were other human and mechanical errors made. For instance, the thermometers were not entirely accurate as they are only accurate to one decimal place. Due to the lack of control over the environment in which the lab was performed, the assumptions that were made, and the outlying errors performed, it was evident that this lab could be improved upon.
Closing the system of the experiment would increase the accuracy of the lab. If a large transparent insulation material was used to construct a confined space, the heat from the heated water and the metal block will not be able to escape. The transparency also allows us to observe the thermometer that is constantly regulating the temperature of the water with the metal block. The thermometer would be taped to the side of the enclosure as the presence of a ring stand would absorb some of the heat that will be released. Moreover, there is energy lost through the heating of the water in the experiment as the beaker sat open on the hot plate. To combat this, the usage of an electric kettle to warm the liquid will decrease the loss of energy because kettles are designed to retain their thermal energy, and it shows the current temperature of the water.