Latent Heats and Specific Heat Capacity.
Objective: The purpose of this lab was to find specific heat capacity of a certain material and the latent heat of another by experimentation, and to compare them to already known values.
Procedure: We first took a calorimeter and measured the mass to be 12.1 grams. As we were doing this we were also heating a 100-gram weight in boiling water. We then filled the calorimeter with tap water and measured the mass of the cup and water. After filling the cup we took the initial temperature of the water with a thermometer. We also took the initial temperature of the weight by it being equal to that of boiling water, which is 100 degrees Celsius. Next we placed the heated weight in the water contained by the calorimeter. We then found the temperature at which the weight and water were equal using our mercury thermometer. We repeated this process three times using three different masses of water. After finding all of the temperatures and masses, we calculated the specific heat capacity for each trial. Finally we took the average of the three trials for specific heat and compared the calculated value to the accept value.
In the second part of this lab we found latent heat values. We used the same calorimeter and filled it with water and found the mass of the cup and water. Then we took the initial temperature. After doing this we put some ice in our cup. Before putting the ice in the cup, we squeezed the cubes in our hands and then "patted" them dry with a paper towel as best we could. We waited for the ice to melt then took the final temperature of the water with the melted ice. We also measured the weight of the mass of the cup of water, which now included the mass of the melted ice. This process was repeated three separate times for three different masses of water. The heat of fusion was calculated after these values were established. The three calculated values for heat of fusion were used to take an average heat of fusion.