Einstein temperature of aluminium

M. H. Yipa , L. E. Kjenstada
a Institutt

for fysikk, Norges Teknisk-Naturvitenskapelige Universitet, N-7491 Trondheim, Norway.

Abstract
The weight and rate of evaporation of liquid nitrogen before and after adding a piece of aluminium was measured, this
in order to find the Einstein temperature of said metal. It was found to be E = 290 38K.
1. Introduction
Measurements of heat capacities have been important
for the development of quantum theory. According to classical mechanics, heat capacity should not be temperature
dependent. In fact, as later experiments showed, this is
only approximately true for non-extreme temperatures. At
near absolute zero temperatures, the heat capacity is near
zero. By using Plancks assumption of quantization, Einstein was able to come up with a theory that accounted
for this. Einsteins model, published in 1907, was the first
model that showed a correlation between the heat capacity
for solids and temperature. Einstein used quantum theory
to explain how classical theory differed from experimental
measurements. [3]
2. Theory
Equipartition theorem 1. The theorem of equipartition
of energy states that molecules in thermal equilibrium have
the same average energy associated with each independent
degree of freedom of their motion and any quadratic term
in of energy form will contribute 12 kB T so much energy.
1
hAx2 i = kB T
2
For example, diamonds has a crystal structure. A
molecule in a crystal has translational energy in three dimensions and potential energy also has three dimension
and almost zero rotation energy. If we apply the equipartition theorem, then E = 62 RT per mole. It follows that
cV m =

6
R,
2

this is called Dulong and Petits law, and applies for high
temperatures only.
At low temperatures, Einstein used quantum physics
model to find heat capacity. (E) = Z1 eE is statistic
total energy distribution. Here = kB1T , Z = 1e1 and
E = En = n, n = 1, 2, 3, 4 . . . .  = ~ where ~ is
Plancks constant and oscillators frequency.
Preprint submitted to Veileder

By using statistical normalisation and calculation, it

yields
E1
hEi = E1
(1)
e kB T 1
then it follows that
E1
2

e kB T
E1
(2)
cV m = 3R
2
 E1
kB T
e kB T 1
Equation (2) tells us that cV m is not a constant. When
T is approaching to zero, cV m also approaches zero.
The Einstein temperature is defined as
E =

E1
.
kB

Room temperature is relatively high temperature for liquid

nitrogen. Latent heat, denoted "L", is the heat per mass
necessary for phase change of a substance. Usually defined
positive from liquid phase to gas phase, which means that
the heat per mass flows into the system.
Lm = Q

(3)

We will use Gauss uncertainty rule to estimate uncertainty of Einstein temperature.

r
E
E
E = (
x1 )2 + . . . + (
dxn )2
(4)
x1
xn
3. Method and apparatus
An overview of the apparatus used in the experiment
is presented in figure 1. The electronic scale was used to
measure the rate of evaporation of liquid nitrogen in room
temperature. Two polystyrene cups stacked on top of each
other were used as an insulating container for the nitrogen.
The insulating material allows for a better control of heat
flow through the liquid-air interface.
The heat required to vaporise a liquid is proportional to
the evaporated mass. This rate of evaporation was measured by recording the weight at specific time intervals.
October 29, 2015

Figure 2: Mass of nitrogen in a cup as a function of time. The

small circles on the red line represents measurement points before the dropped sample was dropped, and the red line is the
trend-line for the circles. The small circles on the blue line
represents measurement points after evaporation rate seems returned to normal, and the blue line is the trend-line for these
points.

Figure 1: Figure 1: A simple overview of the apparatus which

was used during the experiment. Two polystyrene cups are
placed on top of an electronic scale. The cups contain liquid
nitrogen, and a sample of aluminium is lowered into it.

When a cup of liquid nitrogen is evaporating in room temperature, the liquid nitrogen will not get hotter. System
is defined to exclude the nitrogen gas, so the magnitude of
heat gain can be determined by using latent heat "L".
In the first part of the experiment the rate of evaporation was measured without the aluminium. Six observations of weight were made at one minute intervals. After
the sixth observation, a piece of aluminium was lowered
into the liquid. This caused an increase in the rate of
evaporation.
When the temperature of both aluminium and nitrogen
had reached an equilibrium, a new series of measurements
were made. These observations forms the basis for calculating the Einstein temperature of aluminium.

A camera was used to improve accuracy of each measurement.

Latent heat of liquid nitrogen is 2 105 J/kg. This
yields Q = 888.1184 54.6J. Molar mass of aluminium
is 26.981538g/mol, which yields the mole number n =
0.2124 0.000037mol. We already had initial temperature Ti = 296.15 1K, final temperature: Tf = 77K and
gas constant: R = 8.314472J/(K mol)
Matlab yields a graphical solution, see figure 3. E =
290K, uncertainty due to time different E,T ime = 38K
and uncertainty due to mole number and initial temperature E,n+Ti = 4K, Gauss uncertainty rule (4) in our
case, it would be better to express like this;
p
(5)
E = (1 )2 + . . . + (n )2

4. Results and discussion

4.1. Results
The aluminium sample weights 5.732 0.001g and the
room temperature was 296.15 1K.
The aluminium sample was dropped into the nitrogen
after 7 minutes and 4 seconds (424 seconds). This caused
an increase in the evaporation rate. The increased evaporation rate continued until 8 minutes and 4 seconds (484
seconds) when it returned to normal This means that the
aluminium sample needs around 1 minute before its temperature to change from 296.15 1K (room temperature)
to 77K (liquid nitrogen temperature).
Matlab yields figure 2. 455 seconds is the mean value
between the start and end of the increased evaporation
rate. The time at 455 second is chosen to get mnitrogen ,
time at 425 and 485 second are chosen to get uncertainty
of mnitrogen . Figure 2 shows mnitrogen = 4.44 0.27g.

It yields E = 38.1K. However, uncertainty is usually imprecise determined, so 38 38.1 Then the result
E = 290 38K was found.
4.2. Discussion
E,T ime = 38K is relatively big and undesirable.
But what causes this big uncertainty? In figure 2 shows
that these two slopes are quite different. These slopes
represents the average evaporation rate of liquid nitrogen.
The smaller slopes difference between red line and blue
line, the smaller uncertainty. The actual slops is changing
slowly with time, but we treat it like constant. The absolute value of the slope of the blue line is smaller than
the red line. What is the reasons to cases that these two
slopes are different?
2

5. Conclusion
The Einstein temperature was estimated to be E =
290 38K. This is a relatively large uncertainty that can
be explained by the large time gap between the two series, in particular the time between evaporation returned
to normal and the next measurement. The non-constant
cross section of the cup and ice forming on the sides of the
cup may also have been a significant source of uncertainty.
References
[1] K. Razi Naqvi. Laborotorium i emnene TFY4165/FY1005 Termisk fysikk, NTNU, 2014.
[2] E. Lillestl, O. Hunderi og J. R. Lien. Generell fysikk for universiteter og hgskoler. Bind 2 Varmelre og elektromagnetisme.
Universitetsforlaget, 2001.
[3] A. Douglas Stone. Einstein and the Quantum. Princeton University Press, 2013, p. 146
[4] Labhefte
TFY4165
Termisk
fysikk,
Hsten
2015,
http://home.phys.ntnu.no/brukdef/undervisning/tfy4165_
lab/orientering/termisk_labhefte_2015.pdf

Figure 3: This figure shows that the solution point and its
uncertainty. The horizontal red line represents Q which is
calculated by using mnitrogen , and these horizontal blue lines
represents the uncertainty of the red line due to Time =
30s. The massive evaporation maintains for 60 seconds, then
Time = 30. It creates a big uncertainty. The another red
line represents how much heat have been taken from our aluminium sample to bring down the temperature from 296.16K
to 77K at different Einsteins temperature. Again, these blue
lines represents the uncertainty of the red line due to n and
T .

The first reason may be the geometry of the cups. The

cups we used have different cross section area at different
heights. With The lower liquid nitrogen level in the cups,
the smaller cross section area. This could be improved by
having a cross section that is non-dependent of the height
of the cup, i.e. a box.
The second reason is that ice begins to form on the
exterior of the cups. This slowly decreases the heat flow
between liquid nitrogen and the environment. And more
importantly, the ice also have weight, but we could not exclude it in our measurement. This may be the reason why
the blue line have smaller absolute value of slope in figure
2. This could be improved by having a large temperature
reservoir with good thermal contact with the exterior surface of the cup, or just start the experiment after the ice
is fully developed.
However, were still not sure how much these reasons
can effects the two slopes in figure 2 until we do a new
experiment and compare it.
Some errors were not considered when we estimated
the uncertainty. The evaporation temperature of liquid
nitrogen may have a uncertainty. The weight of ice is
difficult to take into calculation, because it forms during
the experiment.
Labhefte [4] at page 28 yields E = 284 6K. Comparing our result to Labhefte [4], E = 284 6K is inside
the interval E = 290 38K, but we have much bigger
uncertainty.
3