Day 1: Temperature Scales, Coke Cans and Immersion Heaters

In Class Activity

We solved for TF in terms of TC and found the relationship to be that of which is shown above. We used the points (0°C, 32°F) and (100°C, 212°F) to find the above equation. 

Thermal Conductivity of a Coke Can

In class we set up an experiment using a 222mL Coke Zero can, two temperature probes, 100mL of 23.2°C water, and 50mL of 59.5°C water. We placed the 100mL of warm water inside the can and submerged it inside a Styrofoam cup that held the 200mL room temperature water. We then took data of the heat transfer by placing the temperature probes on the inside and outside wall of the can. The data recorded was as follows:

We then determined all the necessary measurements to calculate thermal conductivity and got the resulting answer. 

The uncertainty of the value for thermal conductivity was calculated using...

Immersion Heaters

Our next experiment was used to determine the specific heat capacity of water using a 292.8 Watt immersion heater and 200mL of room temperature water. Following the instruction we submerged the immersion heater inside the water and recorded the temperature changed over time (20 secs). 

We then inverted the graph so that it read Heat vs Temperature rather than Temperature vs Time and got the following linear graph.

The slope of this graph which was 0.8372 turns out to actually be the heat capacity for water in J/°C. This value makes sense because it is near the true 1.00 J/°C heat capacity for water.