Physics Lab II

Phys 1602 L
Course Coordinators
Dr. Farzana Tareen/ Dr Mohsin Saeed
Practicals

Heat capacity of metals

• Velocity of light
• Magnetic fields of single coil/Biot savart’s law
• Magnetic fields of paired coils in Helmholts arrangement
 Introduction
• Heat is the form of energy
• It is measured like other forms of
energy in joules(J)
• Realization of temperature and heat are
two different things as temperature
measured in (K,F,C)
• Any object may contain various types of
energy
• Consider a jar containing beeds . Object
has gravitational energy due to gravity
and kinetic energy due to moving.
Individual have their own
Introduction cont.
• In a substance, Kinetic energy is present
due to masses and velocities of its particles
being vibrated, rotated or translated and
potential energy is present due to attractive
forces between each of the particles as
bonds and between separate particles
• The sum of the kinetic and potential
energies of all the particles is called internal
or thermal energy of substance.
• The terms heat is used to describe the
internal energy of a substance
• The study of the transfers of this energy is
called thermodynamics.
 Thermal equilibrium
• Thermal equilibrium is the state at which
two objects in an isolated environment
gain the same temperature after the
process of heat transfer from the body
containing more heat(TB) to the other
body(TA)
• Note that in isolated environment, there is
no heat lost to the surrounding. Therefore,
the heat lost by the hotter (TB) object is
equal to heat gain by colder body(TA)
• This is theoretical and in practice, heat is
lost through radiation- all the objects that
have temperature above the absolute zero.
 Specific heat capacity
• In the room, that has same temperature
(say 23C), all the objects have same
temperature because of thermal
equilibrium. However. If we humans
touched a metallic objects in the room
temperature it would feel much colder
than non-metallic objects in the same
room.
• due to faster heat conduction of metals
• good conductors of heat are those
substances which have low heat
capacity
Specific heat Capacity
 Specific Heat Capacity
• The capacity of a substance to store heat
depends on its chemical composition.
 Specific Heat Capacity
• Some foods remain hot much longer than
others.
• Boiled onions, for example, are often too hot to
eat while mashed potatoes may be just right.
• The filling of hot apple pie can burn your tongue
while the crust will not when the pie has just been
taken out of the oven.
• An aluminum foil covering can be peeled off with
bare fingers right out of the oven, but be careful
of the food beneath it.
 Specific Heat Capacity
• You can touch the aluminum pan of the frozen
dinner soon after it has been taken from the
hot oven, but you’ll burn your fingers if you
touch the food it contains.
 Specific Heat Capacity

• Different substances have different capacities for storing

internal energy, or heat.
• A pot of water on a stove might require 15 minutes to be
heated from room temperature to its boiling temperature.
• An equal mass of iron on the same flame would rise
through the same temperature range in only about 2
minutes.
• For silver, the time would be less than a minute.
Specific Heat Capacity as thermal inertia

• Recall that inertia is a term used in mechanics

to signify the resistance of an object to change
in its state of motion.
• Specific heat capacity is like a thermal inertia
since it signifies the resistance of a substance
to change in its temperature.
 Specific Heat Capacity
• A gram of water requires 1 calorie of energy to raise the temperature 1°C.
• It takes only about one eighth as much energy to raise the temperature of a gram of
iron by the same amount .
 Specific Heat Capacity
• Absorbed energy can affect substances in different ways.
• Absorbed energy that increases the translational speed of molecules is
responsible for increases in temperature.
• Temperature is a measure only of the kinetic energy of translational motion.
• Absorbed energy may also increase the rotation of molecules, increase
the internal vibrations within molecules, or stretch intermolecular bonds
and be stored as potential energy.
• Iron atoms in the iron lattice primarily shake back and forth, while water molecules
soak up a lot of energy in rotations, internal vibrations, and bond stretching.

• Water absorbs more heat per gram than iron for the same change in temperature.
• Water has a higher specific heat capacity (sometimes simply called specific
heat) than iron has.
Laws of Thermodynamics
Calorimetry
Experimentation
 Short Description
Principle:
• Heated specimens are placed in a calorimeter filled with water at low temperature. The heat capacity of the
specimen is determined from the rise in the temperature of the water.
Tasks:
i. To determine the heat capacity of the calorimeter by filling it with hot water and determining the rise in
temperature.
ii. To determine the specific heat capacity of Aluminium, Iron and Brass.
Experimental Setup and Equipments
Sr. NO: Equipments
1. Calorimeter
2. Metal bodies
3. Steel pot
4. Burner
5. Barometer
6. Thermometer
7. Stopwatch
8. Fish line
9. Beakers
10. Glass beads
11. Weighing Ballance
12. Burner Stand
 Setup and Procedure
• Fill the calorimeter with hot water (approx. 50 °C) of known mass.
• Read off the temperature in the calorimeter several times after the water has been put in, stirring continuously, and
plot the results over time on a graph. The mixture temperature can be determined by extrapolation from the graph
• Repeat the experiment to increase the accuracy of the measurement. Keep ready a vessel containing water at room
temperature, so that the calorimeter can quickly be returned to room temperature after the measurement. Leave
this water in the calorimeter for approx. 5 minutes and then empty and dry it. Start the next measurement after
another five minutes.
• brass test pieces weigh them to obtain their mass. Do the same with the four steel test pieces and with three
aluminum test pieces.
• Put a layer of glass beads about 3 cm deep in the bottom of the beaker so that the metal specimens do not touch it
when they are being heated.
• Fill the calorimeter with cold water of known mass.
• Leave the specimens in the boiling water for about 10 minutes, then drain them quickly and put them into the
calorimeter.
• Read off the temperature in the calorimeter for a little while before and after putting the specimens in, stirring
continuously, and plot the readings over time in a graph
 Specific Heat of given Solids:

Variables:
s1= Specific heat of Calorimeter
s2= Specific heat of water
m1= measure mass of calorimeter
m2= measure mass of calorimeter with water
m3= mass of calorimeter with solid
t1= initial temp of water in calorimeter
t2= temperature of solid in beaker
t3= temperature of calorimeter with solid
Questions