To Determine Specific Heat Capacity of Given Solid by Method of Mixtures

The specific capacity of heat is defined as the amount of heat which is required for one gram of substance at 1⁰C. To understand how to determine the specific heat capacity of a given solid by the method of mixtures we need to read the full article.

Prime Aim of The Experiment is To Determine The Specific Heat Capacity of Solid

This experiment is one of the most famous experiments that a student can come across in their academic life. A brilliant experiment that teaches the fundamentals of how specific heat capacity works and how exactly are students supposed to go about it. Students need to make sure that they are reading this article very thoroughly. This is because, when students are paying attention to the details of an experiment, only then they will be able to draw inferences from every single tiny thing that happens in the experiment. 

When you perform the entire procedure of the experiment in your class, we suggest that you carry this document every time you get into the lab. Being a student of physics takes a good amount of self-study and we believe that this article is going to be very helpful for you to get a good idea of what you want to be looking for and how exactly you should be going about the experiment whenever you are performing it in the laboratory. 

Determining the specific heat capacity of a given solid by a method of mixtures is a great way to understand the details and the functioning of how specific heat works. For students who may have had doubts in the initial times of the topic, this experiment proves how specific heat works thereby clarifying your doubts. We recommend that you pay attention to this experiment very carefully and ask as many questions as possible whenever you are in doubt. 

Questions in learning make us better students and better learners. They open up opportunities for growth and that is something that every student must learn and understand. Therefore, it is crucial to ask questions throughout the entire experiment and make sure that you are getting all the knowledge from it. Vedantu wishes you luck and proudly presents this detailed article on the experiment to determine the specific heat capacity of a given solid by the method of mixtures.

Aim of the Experiment: 

To determine the specific heat capacity of a given solid by the method of mixtures.

The materials which are required:

1. The  Hypsometer

2. The calorimeter

3. The stirrer

4. A lid 

5. A solid which is in small pieces

6. The balance

7. The Weight box

8. The Two half-degree of thermometer

9. Some Coldwater

Note- Make sure that whenever you are conducting the experiment, you happen to have all these materials handy. Another important thing that Vedantu would suggest is to make sure that students are taking the right safety measures while being in the laboratory so that they can conduct the entire experiment properly and with all safety. 

Determination of Specific Heat of a Solid

It is very important to note for us that in this experiment the better insulated our calorimeter is the more accurate our results will be. The loss of heat by conduction is the main cause of error in this experiment.

The theory behind this specific heat test is based on the conservation of energy. Heat is a form of energy and in this case, it will be transferred between the sample and water. It should now be clear how convenient this specific capacity of heat test is because the only reason to perform this experiment is to measure the change in temperature of the water which is indirect to the change in heat of the solid.

The Theory 

In a hypsometer, the solid is heated uniformly above room temperature up to a fixed temperature and then it is added to cold water in a calorimeter.

Loss of heat = heat gained by the calorimeter and water.

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Procedure

1. Put two thermometers that are A and B in a beaker that are containing water and note their reading.  Take one of them (say A) to be standard and find the correction to be applied to the other that is B.

2. Now we need to put thermometer B in a copper tube of a hypsometer containing the power of a given solid. We need to put sufficient water in the hypsometer and place it on a burner.

3. Weigh the calorimeter with a stirrer and lid over it by the physical balance. We need to record it.

4. Then fill about half of the calorimeter with water that too at about 5 to 8°C below room temperature. Now we need to weigh it again and record it.

5. Heat the hypsometer for about 10 minutes till the temperature of the solid remains steady.

6. Next, we need to note the temperature of water in the calorimeter. Transfer the solid from the hypsometer to the calorimeter quickly and then stir the contents and record the final temperature of the mixture.

7. Then in the end we need to remove thermometer A from the calorimeter and weigh the calorimeter with its contents and lid.

The Result

The specific heat of given solid by the method of the mixture is…………cal g^-1 °C^-1

The Precautions 

1. Sufficient solid power should be taken to cover the tip of the thermometer properly.

2. Sufficient water should be taken in the hypsometer.

3. The solid should be dropped quickly and gently.

4. The calorimeters generally should be polished from the outside to avoid excessive radiation losses.

5. The temperature of cold water should not be below the dew point.

The Sources of Error 

1. There is some heat lost while transferring hot solid into a calorimeter.

2. There may be some heat lost in conduction, convection, and radiation.

3. The bulbs which are on the thermometer may not be well inside the solid.

The specific heat of the solid is already calculated earlier.

Heat Capacity of Solids

The heat capacity of a substance is related to how much energy it takes to raise the temperature of that substance by one unit. It depends upon how much of the substance is being considered in terms of the amount of energy standardized per unit of the substance. The standardized unit could be a unit of mass. The standardized unit that generally makes a comparison between different substances easiest is a mole amount containing Avogadro's number which is 6.025×1023 of molecules or the atoms as single unit molecules.

The capacity of heat per unit substance (denoted by C) is the increase in internal energy of a substance U. Per unit increase in temperature is denoted by  \[T:C = \frac{∂U}{∂T}\]

We need to note that the surface area of our sample is in relation to its mass. The more the mass of our sample, the more heat it will absorb and then give off, which means the result will be more accurate

Conclusion

We hope that students carry out the entire experiment with a teacher before carrying it out themselves. The experiment aims to teach you how to Determine the Specific Heat Capacity of a Given Solid by Method of Mixtures and is a very crucial part of the idea and concept behind specific heat. 

A couple of things that Vedantu would like to emphasize is to make sure that you are staying safe in the lab and carrying out all the activities with all the necessary equipment to ensure the safety of your fellow peers as well. 

Lastly, we hope that this article was able to break all the details down in a simple yet effective manner for you to understand what the entire experiment of Determining the Specific Heat Capacity of Given Solid by Method of Mixtures was.

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