You can’t get through a science or engineering degree without having performed a calorimetry lab. A calorimetry experiment is made of of inexpensive equipment (it only uses a coffee cup and a thermometer) and the calculations needed to do the experiment are pretty easy, so you can already tell that teachers are going to like them. They are useful in figuring out the specific heat capacity and the heat of fucion or dissolution of an unknown substance (usually a lump of metal). Here’s how to make a coffee cup calorimeter and do the calculations:

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Chemists use a bomb calorimeter to measure the heat flow for reactions that involve gases (since the gases would escape out of the coffee cup) and reactions at high temperatures (which would melt the cup). It works the same way as the coffee cup version, only the reaction is sealed and placed in water, which is then placed in an insulated container. It’s a more elaborate setup as well as analysis because now you take into account the heat flow into the parts of the calorimeter. Heat also does work as it transfers energy.

Click here to go to next lesson on Heat Engines.

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