Physics 2 lab

presentation

T O P I C : T O
D E T E R M I N E T H E
S P E C I F I C H E A T O F
A L I Q U I D B Y
N E W T O N ’ S L A W O F
C O O L I N G
Outline

• Theory

• Apparatus

• Procedure

• Observation

• Calculation and result

• Discussion
 Theory

What is specific heat ?

The amount of heat energy required to raise the temperature of a unit mass of a
substance or material by 1℃ or 1K is called specific heat or specific heat capacity.
Theory
• Cooling law or Newton’s law of cooling.

• Newton’s law of cooling states that the rate at which

an object cools is proportional to the difference
between the object and object’s surrounding.

• What affects cooling?

• Surface area

• Wind speed
Theory
• Calorie

• Unit of measure of heat where energy required by 1g

of water to change temperature by 1℃.
Theory
• According to Newton’s law of cooling

•
 • Calorimeter with stirrer

• Chamber having two walls

• Thermometer

• Balance

Apparatus
Apparatus
• Burner

• Stopwatch
Procedure
• At first, we cleaned and dried the calorimeter and weighed it empty with the stirrer only.

• After heating some water and liquid in two separate identical calorimeters to about 70-75 ℃,
we placed them in a double-walled chamber.

• Next, we placed the calorimeter lids (with a hole in them) and inserted a thermometer into each
calorimeter.

• We gently stirred the water and liquid and noted the temperatures of both the thermometers at
an interval of one minute for the first 10 minutes. For the next 20 minutes, we noted the
temperature at intervals of 2 minutes and for the last 15 minutes, we measured the temperatures
at intervals of 3 minutes. Therefore, we took 26 readings in the span of 45 minutes.
Procedure
• After that, we cooled the calorimeters to room temperature and weighed them again.
Hence, we determined the mass of water and liquid.

• Then, we plotted the two cooling curves- one for water and the other for liquid on the
same piece of graph paper with time as the abscissa and temperature as the ordinate.

• From the curves, we determined the time taken by the water and the liquid to cool through
the same range of temperatures.

• Finally, considering all the observations, we calculated the specific heat of the given
liquid.
Observation
Temperature VS Time
75
70
65
60
55
Temperature (θ⁰ C)

50
45
40
35
30
25
t1 =6 min t2 =11 min
20
15
10
5
0
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50

Time (t min)

Water Power (Water) Liquid

Calculation and result
• =

• is mass of liquid

• is mass of water

• m is mass of calorimeter and stirer

• cooling time of the liquid

Calculation and result
• is the cooling time of the water

• is the specific heat of water

• S is the specific heat of the material of the calorimeter

• If we use all these value in the formula we get, the specific heat of liquid

• Using the specific heat value obtained we can also find which liquid it is.
Discussion
• Mitigating errors:

• Taken many readings and plotted a graph to get reliable result.

• The liquid and water chambers were covered by the calorimeter so that wind does not
affect.
Discussion
• Possible errors:

• The temperature of the liquid and water did not start from same temperature.

• AC did not cool the environment evenly. Sometimes it was a bit colder, while at other
time it was a bit warmer.

• Mainly due to wing of AC.