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Specific Heat by Calorimetry

Drop hot metal into cool water in an insulated cup and use the temperature change to find the metal's specific heat.

Grade 11ExperimentScience OlympiadSciencePhysicsChemistryEnergyAdvanced60 to 90 min8 materialsAdult supervision required

What you'll learn

  • Use energy conservation: heat lost by the metal equals heat gained by the water
  • Calculate specific heat from mass and temperature data
  • Estimate percent error and identify heat loss errors

Objective

Determine the specific heat capacity of a metal using the method of mixtures and compare it with the accepted value.

STEM concepts

Specific heat capacityThermal equilibriumCalorimetryConservation of energy
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