Lab Exercise 10 - Simulation

Heat and Calories: Exploring the Transfer and

Transformation of Heat
OBJECTIVES
• Study how heat moves between bodies of different temperature
• Examine how heat is transformed from one form of energy to another

INTRODUCTION
The original method used to determine the number of Calories in a particular type of food
directly measured the energy it produced. A sample of the food was placed in a sealed metal
container (the bomb) surrounded by water all contained in a thermally insulated jacket. The
entire apparatus is known as a bomb calorimeter. The bomb is generally filled with a high
pressure of pure oxygen and the food is ignited. The food sample is completely burned and the
resulting rise in water temperature is measured.

PART I - EXPLORING HEAT TRANSFER

A. Open the “Heat Transfer - Mixing” simulation in the Program Files folder under Content in
D2L. If the simulation does not open or run, be sure your Flash plug-in is updated, or try
another browser - Chrome seems to work best.
B. Click on the “Start” button to begin the simulation.
C. Record your starting masses and temperatures in your notebook. You may need to wait a
bit for the starting temperatures to stabilize.
D. Estimate the final temperature you think the mixture of the two samples will reach and
record. Discuss your reasoning for that estimate.

E. The “Mix” button will activate 10 seconds after the Start button is pressed. Once the button
is activated, and you have recorded the temperatures and masses as well as answered the
above question, you can mix the two samples. Click on “Mix” when you are ready.
F. Record your observations after the hot water is placed in the cold water.
G. When the temperature of the mix appears to have stopped rising, you can hit the “Stop”
button. Record the final temperature of the mixture in your table.

DATA ANALYSIS
A. What can you say about the amount of heat lost by the hot water and the amount of heat
gained by the cold water in an ideal situation?
B. What was the ∆T for the cold water? What about the ∆T for the hot water? Calculate the
heat gained by the cold water and the heat lost by the hot water in Joules and compare the
two values.
C. Would the final temperature been higher or lower if the mass of the cold water had been
greater than it was for your sample? Explain.

PART II - HEAT TRANSFORMATION

For this portion of the lab you will be combusting various food items and measuring the heat
they transfer to a sample of water in a calorimeter. One you have calculated the amount of heat
for your sample you will calculate the amount of heat evolved per gram.
A. Open the program “Heat and Calories Simulation” in the same folder as before.
B. Look at the different foods in the list. Rank them below in your anticipated order of cal/gram.
Explain your reasoning for your ranking.
C. Select a water mass between 250 g and 1000 g using the upper slider control. Be sure to
have enough water volume to completely cover the bomb. Record the mass of the water
and its starting temperature in the in the column listed on the data sheet.
D. Select the food of your choice - it does not matter which you choose first, you will do all four
of them eventually.
E. Select a number of food pieces using the lower slider control. You can select from 1-4
pieces of the food item selected in the list. Record the mass of food in your data table.
F. Click on “Start” to ignite the food sample and observe the temperature.
G. When the temperature of the water stabilizes, record the final temperature and hit “Stop”.
H. Hit the “Reset” button when you have recorded all the necessary data.
I. Repeat steps B-G until you have done two samples of each food item with two different food
masses and two different water masses for each food in the list.

DATA ANALYSIS
A. Choose one of your sample runs and calculate the amount of heat absorbed by the water
during the combustion. Where did this heat come from? Show work in your sample
calculations. (CH2O = 1.000 cal/g°C)
B. Calculate the amount of heat given off by the sample used above in calories/gram. Show
your work in your sample calculations.
C. Calculate the calories/gram for each of your sample and report your results.
D. Rank your foods based on your calculated calories/gram. How does this order compare with
the order you predicted? Why do you think there is any difference?
E. The specific heat of water is 1.000 cal/g·°C. The specific heat of ethanol is 0.588 cal/g·°C.
If ethanol were used as the liquid in the calorimeter rather than water, how would the ∆T
values for your runs have changed? Explain your reasoning.
F. Bomb calorimetry was once used frequently to determine the amount of calories contained
in food. This is no longer the case. Research and report on the method used most
commonly now and how its results differ from those found using calorimetry.

Sample Data Tables

PART I

Cold water Mass (g)

Cold water Starting Temp (°C)

Hot water Mass (g)

Hot water Starting Temp (°C)

Final Temperature for Mixture (°C)

∆T for Cold Water (°C)

∆T for Hot Water (°C)

PART II

SAMPLE 1 SAMPLE 2

FOOD TYPE

Sample Mass (g)

Water Mass (g)

Starting Temp (°C)

Final Temp (°C)

∆T (°C)

Calculated cal/g