water heat capacity experiment

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Specific Heat Capacity and Water

Water has a high specific heat capacity—it absorbs a lot of heat before it begins to get hot. You may not know how that affects you, but the specific heat of water has a huge role to play in the Earth's climate and helps determine the habitability of many places around the globe.

•   Water Science School HOME   •   Water Properties topics   •

Specific heat is defined by the amount of heat needed to raise the temperature of 1 gram of a substance 1 degree Celsius (°C). Water has a high specific heat, meaning it takes more energy to increase the temperature of water compared to other substances. This is why water is valuable to industries and in your car's radiator as a coolant. The high specific heat of water also helps regulate the rate at which air changes temperature, which is why the temperature change between seasons is gradual rather than sudden, especially near the oceans.

This same concept can be expanded to a world-wide scale. The oceans and lakes help regulate the temperature ranges that billions of people experience in their towns and cities. Water surrounding or near cities take longer to heat up and longer to cool down than do land masses, so cities near the oceans will tend to have less change and less extreme temperatures than inland cities. This property of water is one reason why states on the coast and in the center of the United States can differ so much in temperature patterns. A Midwest state, such as Nebraska, will have colder winters and hotter summers than Oregon, which has a higher latitude but has the Pacific Ocean nearby.

If you leave a bucket of water outside in the sun in summer it will certainly get warm, but not hot enough to boil an egg. But, if you walk barefoot on the black asphalt of a street in the southern portion of the United States in August, you'll burn your feet. Dropping an egg on the metal of my car hood on an August day will produce a fried egg. Metals have a much lower specific heat than water. If you've ever held onto a needle and put the other end in a flame you know how fast the needle gets hot, and how fast the heat is moved through the length of the needle to your finger. Not so with water.

Why heat capacity is important

The high specific heat of water has a great deal to do with regulating extremes in the environment. For instance, the fish in this pond are happy because the specific heat of the water in the pond means the temperature of the water will stay relatively the same from day to night. They don't have to worry about either turning on the air conditioner or putting on their woolen flipper gloves. (Also, for happy fish, check out our page on Dissolved Oxygen .)

Lucky for me, you, and the fish in the pond to the right, water has a higher specific heat than many other substances. One of water's most significant properties is that it takes a lot of energy to heat it. Precisely, water has to absorb 4,184 Joules of heat (1 kilocalorie) for the temperature of one kilogram of water to increase 1°C. For comparison sake, it only takes 385 Joules of heat to raise 1 kilogram of copper 1°C.

If you'd like to learn more about the specific heat of water at the molecular level, check out this video on the specific heat of water from Khan Academy.

Below are other science topics associated with heat capacity and water.

Water Properties Information by Topic

Temperature and Water

Below are multimedia items associated with heat capacity and water.

Educating Physics

Determining Specific Heat Capacity Through Experiment

Objectives:

• To understand how to practically determine the specific heat capacity of a substance

Introduction  

A practical for specific heat capacity involves measuring the temperature changes of different materials when they are heated . An investigation involves linking the decrease of one store of one energy store to the increase in thermal energy store. As you would expect, the energy transferrer (work done) will cause a temperature to rise.

As you will have learned on the specific heat capacity page, the temperature rise of a material depends on its specific heat capacity. Materials with a low specific heat capacity (a low capacity to store thermal energy) will have a greater temperature increase than those with a high specific heat capacity.

Apparatus required

• Aluminium block with two holes, one for a thermometer and one for a heater
• 50 W, 12 V heater

• Thermometer
• Beaker (250 cm 3 )

Safety precautions

• The heating element will get very hot, especially if not inside a metal block. Take care not to burn yourself
• Damaged equipment should not be used (e.g. bare wires etc.)
• If you scald yourself with the heater or water then, cool under running cold water immediately for 10 minutes.
• Measure the mass of the aluminium block using the balance, if recorded in grams, this should be converted into kilograms.
• Place the heater and thermometer into the aluminium block

• Measure the  starting temperature of the metal block (you may need to wait for the thermometer to stop changing first).
• Turn the power pack on and up to about 5V, this can be higher for certain heaters (but it will say the maximum on it)
• Record the ammeter and voltmeter readings every 60 seconds in a table like that shown further down this page. These values may vary during the experiment, but they shouldn’t do significantly. Whilst recording the ammeter and voltmeter reading, also record the new temperature of the block at each 60s interval.
• After about 10 minutes turn off the power supply.
• Keep the thermometer in the metal block for a while longer. Record the maximum temperature of the block. The heater will still have some energy after you have turned off the power supply so you want to record any additional temperature rise from this energy.

Examples of results tables you should consider using:

Things to consider before experimenting

• The heating element should fit very snuggly into the metal block, but there may be a small layer of air between the heating element  and the metal block. Add a drop of water before you put the heating element in to improve transfer of energy between the heating element and the metal block.
• Remember to measure the mass of the metal block. These blocks are usually 1kg, but to make sure your calculations are accurate, you should take an accurate mass measurement.
• Make sure you heat the metal block for at least 10 minutes; otherwise you will not be able to draw a graph with a good range of results.
• Don’t forget to use your graph to find the gradient of the line. You will need this and the mass of the block to work out the specific het capacity  of the metal.

Analysing the results

After drawing you line of best and taking your gradient the specific heat capacity can be found by using the following equation:

Exemplar graph and results:

****waiting for a good graph to be drawn from a student ****

• Usually, the value for specific heat capacity found is higher than it should be, this is because more energy is put into the system than that used to heat up the substance. Some energy goes into wasted energy, such as heat loss to the surroundings. To improve the results, an insulation material should be used around the block.
• If you are trying to determine the specific heat capacity of a liquid, then the liquid should be stirred before each measurement to ensure all the water is the same temperature. Additionally, a lid should be used, since heat rises this is one way thermal energy can be lost to the surroundings.

Further reading:

• Specific heat capacity – S-cool

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Specific heat capacity of water

YOU WILL NEED

A copper or aluminium calorimeter, a muff, an electrical immersion heater, a voltmeter, an ammeter, connecting leads, a low voltage power supply, a thermometer (0 � 50 o C), a stop watch.

Measure the mass of the calorimeter (M C ) and fill it with a known mass of water (M W ). Record the initial water temperature (θ 1 ). Set up the apparatus as shown in Figure 1. Switch on the heater allow it to heat up so that it is slightly warm to the touch and then put it in the water. Place the muff over the calorimeter and heat the water for a measured time (t). Measure the final temperature of the water (θ 2 ). Record the voltage (V) and current (I), this may need to be adjusted throughout the experiment so that the power input remains constant.

ANALYSIS AND CONCLUSIONS