Why Do Substances Have Specific Temperature?

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Temperature, being the measure of kinetic energy in molecules of a substance, is a marker for the points at which the phase of matter a substance changes, which makes helpful in finding why substances have their melting/freezing points. Additionally, shape, intermolecular forces, and molar masses all affect the amount of kinetic energy (or the temperature) needed to change a substance’s phase of matter. It is from this the research question is derived: Why do substances have specific melting points and freezing points? With this, it was hypothesized that melting/freezing point of a substance is most affected by either shape, intermolecular force, or molar mass. In order to answer this question and test these hypothesis, the experiment was …show more content…

To start, the procedure only mandated that the freezing temperatures were recorded, which provided better data for the group, but without the melting data there was nothing to which to compare the freezing data in order to easily see where a data point was off, and indicate a bad trial. Additionally, given the limitations of a high school classroom, the systems in which the data was collected added a few uncontrolled variables. When the thermometers went through the stoppers in the top of the test tubes, they did not fit tightly enough to seal the substances from the outside while they heated or cooled. This could have changed the temperatures collected for freezing points by having warmer air coming into the test tube while it was cooling. This problem was magnified by the fact that the thermometers also did not touch equal amounts of the substance, as in the case of palmitic acid barely the tip of it was touching the actual acid such that it was simply hanging in the test tube, while for substances such as water and oleic acid, the thermometer was submerged at least partially in the substance. The temperature inside the test tube could have easily differentiated from the temperature of the substance, especially given the fact that there was some outside air able to get into and out of the test tube (likely affecting the open space most of all). If this lab were to be conducted again, these errors could be mitigated by ensuring there was enough of each substance in the test tubes so that the thermometers could reach them inside the test tube, and perhaps checking various stoppers to find the best fitting hole for the thermometers to limit the outside air that could enter the system. In terms of error in execution of the lab, there were problems with determining when a substance was completely solid, and then taking the temperature. It

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