2. While you are waiting for the water to boil, measure the mass of the metal with your scale. Remember to report your answer to one more decimal place than what is marked off by the scale.
3. Once the water on the stove is boiling, drop the metal into the pot and let it sit there for about 5 minutes. This will heat the metal to the temperature of the boiling water (100.0°C).
4. While the metal is heating, nest one Styrofoam cup inside the other. This will be your calorimeter. Since Styrofoam is a good insulator, 2 Styrofoam cups make an excellent calorimeter.
5. Measure the mass of this calorimeter with your scale. After you do this, fill the calorimeter about three-quarters …show more content…
Stir the water carefully with your thermometer and periodically read the temperature without lifting the thermometer out of the water. Continue this process until the temperature stops increasing. Write down the final temperature.
8. Now you can use equation 12.1 to determine how much heat the metal transferred to the water. In this case, ignore the heat absorbed by the calorimeter. Use the change in temperature in °C, the mass of the water in grams, and the specific heat of water as 4.184 J/(g · °C). This will then put your answer in Joules. Be sure to use the correct number of significant figures in determining the heat absorbed by the water.
9. Now you can use equation 12.3. Since we are ignoring the calorimeter in the experiment, q(calorimeter) = 0. You calculated q(water) in the previous step, so you can determine q(metal). It will come out negative because the metal lost energy.
10. Once you have q(metal), you can rearrange equation 12.3 to calculate the specific heat of the metal. To do that, you need to know the mass and ΔT of the metal. You measured its mass. What is its ΔT? Since the metal was in boiling water, its initial temperature was 100.0°C. Since it was in contact with the water and the calorimeter at the end of the experiment, its final temperature was the same as the final temperature of the water. With those 2 numbers, you can calculate ΔT. This number will also turn out negative, canceling the negative sign on the