BTEC Assignment Brief

Qualification Unit number and title

BTEC Level 3 National Extended Diploma in Unit 2: Practical Scientific Procedures and
Applied Science Techniques

Learner name & Student Number Assessor name

Raman Qadiri
Mark Sowden / Helen Crofts
S210839
Learning aim(s) Assignment title
B: Undertake calorimetry to study cooling
2B: Calorimetry of substances
curves
Hand out date Hand in deadline
20/01/2023 17/03/2023

Criteria To achieve the criteria, you must show that you are able to:
P3 Results from calibration of thermometers
Results from practical investigation into the cooling of two substances
Cooling curve graphs for both investigations
P4 Calculations to find the rate of cooling of paraffin wax and stearic acid from the cooling
curves
M2 Analysis of the results and calculations.

D2 Evaluation of the accuracy of the practical investigations

You are a newly appointed technical assistant at a large chemical plant, Chemcalequip. As
part of your induction period and to progress in your role, you have to demonstrate skills
in a range of practical procedures and techniques. Part of your role is to ensure
Vocational
equipment is calibrated and equipment and chemicals are safety checked. You need to
Context demonstrate your ability to use a calorimeter and associated equipment to obtain data
to determine, analyse and evaluate the rate of cooling of substances. You will need to
present evidence of your practical skills, analysis and evaluation in a written report.

Learner declaration:

I certify that the work submitted for this assignment is my own. I have clearly referenced any
sources used in the work. I understand that false declaration is a form of malpractice.
Learner signature: Date: 20/03/23

Carry out calorimetry of two substances (paraffin wax and stearic acid).
Task 1 Record your data in a suitable format.
This will be assessed by your tutor
Produce a report where you analyse and evaluate the data obtained in your calorimetry
experiments. Include in your report:
o A section where you discuss Experiment 1: Calibration of a thermometers, including
your results and conclusions from this practical work.
o A Theory section where you explain the scientific theory behind the phase transitions as
covalent substances cool from a high temperature
o A section where you discuss Planning for Experiment 2: Calorimetry of substances,
including considerations when choosing equipment and procedures in this practical
work.
o A section where you report your Results from Experiment 2: Calorimetry of substances
Task 2 in a suitable, labelled, format and include fully labelled cooling curves that are
constructed from the data that you collected. Use tangents and gradients to find the
rate of cooling at three points on your cooling curves.
o A Conclusions section for Experiment 2: Calorimetry of substances, where you draw
conclusions from the cooling rates that you’ve calculated, explaining how this links to
the underlying scientific theory
o An Evaluation section for Experiment 2: Calorimetry of substances, where you evaluate
the accuracy of your practical work and the subsequent construction of cooling curves.
This should include a description of the trends seen and comparison of your results to
published data and class values. You should also consider sources of uncertainty in your
practical work, and suggestions to reduce levels of uncertainty, with justifications.

Additional sources of information to support you with this assignment:

http://www.chemteam.info/Thermochem/Determine-Specific-Heat.html
http://www.virtlab.com/main.aspx
http://www.chem.illinois.edu/CLCTutorials/104/Calorimetry/SeeIt.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NZuU8BGj3uY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EAgbknIDKNo
http://www.rsc.org/

Further useful resources may be found at:

http://qualifications.pearson.com/en/support/published-resources.html#step1
ASSESSMENT RECORD SHEET
Deadline 17/03/2023 Date Submitted

If the submission deadline was missed, has an extension to the deadline been approved by the Assessor due to extenuating circumstances? Yes / No

Targeted Criteria
Assessment comments
criteria achieved
P3 You have / have not correctly obtained data using different equipment to construct cooling curves.

P4 You have / have not correctly determined the rate of cooling of substances using cooling curves.

M2 You have / have not analysed the rate of cooling of substances from your data using cooling curves to draw valid conclusions.

D2 You have / have not evaluated the accuracy of practical work in calorimetry in relation to the analysis of the cooling curve.

General comments

Assessor I certify that to the best of my knowledge the evidence submitted for this assignment is the learner’s own.
declaration The learner has clearly referenced any sources used in the work. I understand that false declaration is a form of malpractice.

Assessor signature M. Sowden / H. Crofts Date

Date of feedback to learner – this must be within a timely period of the assessment taking place
Resubmission
authorisation Date
by Lead Internal Verifier*
* All resubmissions must be authorised by the Lead Internal Verifier. Only one resubmission is possible per assignment, providing:
 The learner has met initial deadlines set in the assignment, or has met an agreed deadline extension.
 The tutor considers that the learner will be able to provide improved evidence without further guidance.
 Evidence submitted for assessment has been authenticated and accompanied by a signed and dated declaration of authenticity by the learner.
**Any resubmission evidence must be submitted within 15 working days of learners receiving assessment feedback which must be within a timely period of the assessment taking place.
Introduction
We want to make sure that our thermometer accuracy is close to a standard and to confirm that we will get
the correct value this is what we meant by calibration of the thermometer. In this investigation, we aim to
calibrate a digital thermometer so that it can accurately read high and low temperatures. A thermometer's
accuracy can be checked in two ways, both of which are equally important. Two different methods are
available: one based on the ice point method, and one based on the boiling point method. A thermometer is
checked for accuracy at low temperatures by the ice point method and again a thermometer is checked for
accuracy at high temperatures by the boiling point method. There are two methods for checking the
accuracy of thermometers, Using the ice method first fill a beaker with ice cubes, then pour some water in
the beaker, then leave the water and ice to sit for about 5 min, then place the digital/ liquid thermometers in
it, and leave it about 2 minutes, then read the thermometer which could be around 0°C. and then I record
this data for our data result table reading was recorded of results.
Using the boiling hot water method first fill a beaker with boiled water then put it under a Bunsen burner
and let it boil again then put the digital/liquid thermometers in the water in the beaker. and it's important to
not let the thermometer touches the beakers neither in both methods because then we will get inaccurate
data, then after 2 minutes reading the data on the thermometers and put it on our data table result. To
conduct our temperature experiment, we utilized two methods: the ice method and the boiling hot water
method. For the ice method, we first filled a beaker with ice cubes and added water before allowing it to sit
for approximately five minutes. We then placed digital/liquid thermometers in the mixture and waited for
two minutes before recording the temperature, which was around 0°C. It's crucial to avoid letting the
thermometer touch the beaker as this can lead to inaccurate data. Similarly, for the boiling hot water
method, we filled a beaker with boiled water and placed it under a Bunsen burner to boil again. We then
inserted the digital/liquid thermometers and waited for two minutes before recording the temperature and
adding it to our data table.
We will compare the liquid thermometer with the digital thermometer in our investigation to find out which
one is more accurate for measuring our values.

As you can see on the left-hand side, I was boiling the paraffin wax then on the right-hand side I
inserted the digital thermometer inside the paraffin wax to take the temperature every 30 seconds
using a stopwatch and used a thermometer to see the exact temperature on those times.
Results

Type of
Expected Temperature / °C Measured Temperature / °C Correction needed / °C
Thermometer

0.0 0.3 -0.3

Digital
100.0 101.2 -1.2
Liquid 0 1.0 -1.0
100 93.0 +7.0

Results after resetting the digital thermometer

Type of
Expected Temperature / °C Measured Temperature / °C Correction needed / °C
Thermometer

0.0 0.0 0.0

Digital
100.0 100.0 0.0

Conclusion

My results show that the digital thermometer is slightly more accurate than the liquid thermometer before
resetting. In my digital thermometer measurement that I did, the measured temperature was 0.3 °C away
from 0.0 °C and 1.2 °C away from 100.0 °C, comparing these results to my liquid thermometer results, it was
1.0 °C away from 0.0 °C and 7.0 °C away from 100 °C. The results after our resetting show us that our digital
thermometer is even more accurate because of measuring the data and reading it faster than a liquid
thermometer which basically takes time for the liquid thermometer to heat up and give you the reading
data. The digital thermometer was able to give us data results with 1 decimal place which makes the results
of the digital thermometer more accurate but for our liquid thermometer, our data was shown as 0 decimal
places which make our result for the liquid thermometer less accurate. And it is useful because calorimetry is
allow us to measure the heat of a reaction.

With all the investigation that we did, in my opinion, digital thermometers are the best and most accurate
thermometers as they will give us the closest value to the standard value. And it is the best because, you can
measure the temperature in very less time, unlike a liquid thermometer where you must wait for it until it
goes up or down and stops eventually. And it’s very easier to read the temperature as it has less chance of
human error. And it has a wider range of measuring, unlike a liquid thermometer.

Introduction
In this investigation, our paraffin wax is a hard and colourless material which have a mixture of
hydrocarbons in the straight chains and the melting point of paraffin wax is around 50 degrees
Celsius. We can use our paraffin wax in the products like candles.

Theory

As the times go by in our investigation, our paraffin wax temperature will decrease and as time goes
by in our investigation the paraffin waxes temperature decreases so from the liquid state (Which is
the high temperature) it will transform into a solid state (which is the low or room temperature).
When our paraffin wax reaches the solidification point the heat will be released from it and it will
continue to cool down until the temperature will be same as the room temperature and the
temperature between the room and paraffin wax will be the same and the cooling curve will be
parallel, during the first drop (Instant drop) the liquid will release heat quickly and until it will reach
its solidification point on that point, is that when the liquid will turn from liquid to solid on that
state is when the intermolecular forces will be created again between the molecules and the
substance turns from liquid to solid I expected the curve have an instant drop then a straight line
and again a low drop like not that instant drop but still a low continues to drop until it will be the
same temperature of the room. The cooling curve of a substance is a graph that shows the change
in temperature over time as it cools. It is described by horizontal flat parts where the state changes
from liquid to solid. The gradient of the cooling curve is related to the external temperature, heat
capacity, the thermal conductivity of the substance.
Paraffin wax is a non-polar covalent compound that has linear chains of carbon atoms. The
molecules are held together by weak van der Waals forces, which causes them to slip past one
another when subjected to external stress. On the other hand, stearic acid is a chemical compound
that consists of an 18-carbon chain. The terminal carbon is connected to an oxygen atom with a
double bond and a hydroxyl group (OH) by a single bond. These differences in molecular structure
result in different physical and chemical properties of the two compounds. As the stronger
intermolecular force is required, more energy is required too so it will have a higher melting point.

Planning

So, in my investigation, I’m making sure to do things right. First off, I’m going to place the paraffin
wax in a boiling tube, Because the boiling tube is wider than the test tube so the thermometer can
get inside the boiling tube better than the test tube and it won’t explode in a small piece of glass
and I will leave it there until its fully melted to reach the boiling point of the water in the hot water
bath. That way, we could figure out the paraffin wax's highest temperature and see what changes
happened as it started cooling. Then, I will take out the test tube with the paraffin wax in its liquid
state and take its temperature every 30 seconds for 22 minutes. That is a lot of temperature-taking,
but it is totally worth it. We will record all the changes in temperature on a table of results, which
make it super easy to make an accurate cooling curve of the paraffin wax. All in all, it is pretty cool
seeing how the paraffin wax cools down over time. We should use a reasonable amount of paraffin
wax (20g) for this investigation, if we want to get the best data we can, like not too much of the
paraffin wax or less than necessary, if it’s more than enough then our paraffin wax will take more
time to reach solidification point and it will spill out everywhere from the boiling tube when we put
the digital thermometer inside and If its less than enough then our digital thermometer needle
won’t be covered where it supposed to measure the temperature and then we will have an
inaccurate data. You can get a more accurate value from a digital thermometer, as it provides a
value within one decimal point of the standard value. Human error (eye-level reading) will not
occur since there is a display. As the thermometer is held by clamps, the substance surrounding it
will measure the exact temperature and will not contact the boiling tube walls and bottom because
it might read the actual data as hotter and inaccurate.

On the right-hand side, I inserted the digital thermometer inside our boiling tube which had molten
paraffin wax to measure the temperature and after some time it turns to a solid in the left-hand
side, I am measuring the paraffin wax using a digital thermometer and stopwatch on specific times
(every 30 seconds)

Results
paraffin wax solidifying point: 55.6
stearic acid solidifying point: 56.9
Analysis

56.9

55.6 ◦C
Conclusions

The cooling curve graph offers an interesting insight into the physical properties of the substances.
As the temperature of the substances cools down from its melting point, we can observe an
immediate change from a liquid to a solid state. As the substance continues to cool, it releases
energy to the surrounding environment at a high rate until it reaches the solidification point. After
this point, the rate of the cooling curve and the quantity of energy released to the environment
slowly decrease as the substances continue to cool down until it reaches room temperature.
This graph allows us to understand how energy is lost as the substances cool, as well as how the
rate of the cooling curve changes. It also helps us to understand the physical properties of
substances in more detail. By observing the graph, we can gain a better understanding of how
energy is released from the substances as it transitions from their melting point to their solidifying
point.
So, we can say, the graph provides us with valuable insight into the physical properties of the
substances. As time passes, the temperature of the substances gradually decreases. This decrease
in temperature causes the paraffin wax to change from its liquid state to a solid state. Therefore, it
can be concluded that the longer time passes, the more solid our substances become due to the
decrease in temperature. This trend can be attributed to the physical properties of the substances,
which undergoes a phase change from liquid to solid as it cools down. We can observe how the
cooling rate of substances changes as it transitions from their melting point to their solidifying
point. By understanding this graph, we can gain a better understanding of how energy is released
from the substances as it cools.

When our substance is completely melted and at a high temperature, the particles within it
increase in kinetic energy and move more actively. However, as the substance cools and heat
energy is removed, the kinetic energy of the particles decreases with each passing second of
cooling.

The paraffin wax graph shows that its cooling rate from melting point to solid state is slower than
that of stearic acid. Consequently, paraffin wax takes longer to turn into a solid state and its cooling
curve is less steep than that of stearic acid. The wax will continue to cool down until it reaches
room temperature, which will take longer than stearic acid. These details suggest that the cooling
process of paraffin wax is slower than that of stearic acid, which is supported by the graph.

Our cooling curve of paraffin wax and stearic acid did reach our expectations. As expected, the
stearic acid cooled down at a faster rate than the paraffin wax. This resulted in the stearic acid
solidifying faster than the paraffin wax.
We had expected the melting point of paraffin wax to be between 58°C to 62°C. However, in our
experiment, the melting point of paraffin wax was 89°C, indicating that the paraffin wax we used
was not as precise as we had expected. Similarly, we had expected the melting point of stearic acid
to be between 67°C to 70°C. In our experiment, the melting point of stearic acid was 94.3°C, which
was also slightly higher than expected.
Overall, our experiment of the cooling curve of paraffin wax and stearic acid reached our
expectations, although the paraffin wax and stearic acid we used were not as precise as we had
initially expected. I believe that paraffin wax and stearic acid were inaccurate because they could
have contained additional substances. As a result, the melting point of these substances would
likely have changed from sample to sample. Just as adding salt to water increases its melting point,
the fact of a different component in the wax or acid could have caused the melting point to be
higher or lower than expected.
It is important to take into consideration the fact that not all samples of paraffin wax or stearic acid
will contain the same substance or will have the same melting point, so the melting point could
change accidentally. I believe that while paraffin wax and stearic acid were reliable indicators of
melting point behavior, their exact melting point could be affected by the presence of additional
substances. As a result, it is important to consider the possibility of different substances in these
substances when attempting to determine the exact melting point.

The paraffin wax and stearic acid are both formed of carbon and hydrogen, but the difference in
their melting points lies in the additional presence of oxygen in the stearic acid. The paraffin wax
only has London force, which is the weakest intermolecular force, thus giving it a low melting point.
On the other hand, stearic acid has both London force and hydrogen bonds, in which the hydrogen
bond is the strongest intermolecular force, resulting in a higher melting point.
It is important to understand the intermolecular forces that are present in these two substances in
order to understand why there is a difference in their melting points. London force is a weak
intermolecular force that exists between non-polar molecules, and it is the only intermolecular
force present in paraffin wax. The hydrogen bond, on the other hand, is a much stronger
intermolecular force that exists between molecules that have hydrogen with (oxygen, nitrogen, or
fluorine) and it is present in stearic acid.
In conclusion, the difference in the melting points of paraffin wax and stearic acid is due to the
presence of the hydrogen bond in the stearic acid, which is the strongest intermolecular force. The
presence of the hydrogen bond in the stearic acid gives it a higher melting point than the paraffin
wax, which only has London force. Understanding the intermolecular forces present in these two
substances is key to understanding their differences in melting points.

In my experiment, I observed that the strength of intermolecular forces directly affects the
temperature required to break the bonds between molecules. As a result, changing states from
solid to liquid requires a significant amount of energy, and even more, energy is needed to change
from liquid to gas. To melt a solid into a liquid, I applied heat energy and based my calculations on
the cooling curve, which relied on the rate of a temperature decrease to accurately draw the
gradient.

Evaluation

Plotting the graph accurately is essential in order to draw accurate conclusions from a cooling
curve. If there are any errors in plotting, such as missed or wrongly drawn points, then the graph
will be inaccurate, and the conclusion drawn from it will be wrong. To prevent this, one must be
careful when plotting the various points on the graph. Additionally, when drawing the tangent to
measure the rate of cooling, certain procedures must be followed: the tangent should only touch
one point of the curve, the angles formed by the tangent and the curve should be equal, and the
tangent should not cross the individual curve. If any of these steps are not followed, then the
tangent drawn will be wrong and the rate of cooling (gradient) will be calculated incorrectly.
Therefore, one must take great care when plotting the points and drawing the tangent in order to
accurately measure the rate of cooling. This unfortunate outcome could have been avoided if the
user had been more careful while using the points they had acquired for the calculation. It is
important to remember to use the correct numerical sign, in this case, the subtraction and division
sign, to ensure the correct result is achieved. From my perspective, my graph was more curved
from the melting point to the solidification point and had a different cooling rate compared to other
students' graphs. However, my solidification point was the same temperature as theirs, which was
55.6 °C for paraffin wax and 56.9 °C for steric acid. Upon observing the comparison of the graphs,
we can conclude that the paraffin wax used by the students might have been different due to the
presence of unnecessary substances, which affected the cooling rate. To prevent this, we should
use a new paraffin wax each time, instead of a used or old one.

As a similarity in the cooling curve shape, the pattern (trend) of cooling curves between the two
substances were slightly similar but with a different cooling rate and different temperatures which
makes them different and the time takes to be solid again from melting point and how hast of
losing temperature to the surrounding.

Human errors can lead to inaccurate temperature readings and wrong graphs and conclusions. This
can include writing down wrong numbers, repeating numbers, or even missing out on numbers. To
prevent this from happening, it is important to be careful while recording down numbers to ensure
that no mistakes are made. Doing this can help to ensure that the readings are accurate and that
the graphs and conclusions are correct.