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  • Essay / The specific heat of different metals: a comparative experiment

    The main objective of the specific heat of a metal plate was to compare the specific heat of different metals, find the theoretical and experimental values ​​and describe the transfer of heat when the metals transfer heat to surrounding water at room temperature. We used a few different metals for this experiment. We chose tin, copper, and zinc because they would all fit in the containers and their masses were similar. The lab also included a few variables and constants. The independent variable was the heat released by the boiling water. Alternatively, the dependent variables were the final metal temperature and the ambient water temperature. The constants were the amounts of water in our second and third experiments. Ideally the amount of water, boiling water and room temperature water would be constant, but as we experimented over several days, these became variable. Our calculations used direct measurements to determine our variables with a thermometer. My hypothesis was that the specific heat of the metals and the final temperatures were directly proportional. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”?Get the original essayEquipmentBeakerExcel spreadsheet for calculationsThermometerInsulated container for cold waterMetal samplesHot plate or heater for boiling water.TongsProcedureUse the hotplate to boil the water. While boiling, fill an insulated container with room temperature water. Place one of the metals in boiling water until it reaches the same temperature as the boiling water. Place the boiling water metal into room temperature water. Once it reaches a peak temperature, record the resultsRecord the results of each test when changing metals.Be sure to do multiple tests to ensure consistent and accurate results.Analyze your data to see the relationship between theoretical and experimental values. For each metal, we varied the boiling temperature, room temperature and the amount of water in the container at room temperature. When we performed the specific heat test for tin, we were only 0.012 Kcal/kg·°C away from the actual value (22% above the theoretical value). For Copper, we were even closer with 0.003 Kcal/kg·°C to the real value (3% below the theoretical value). Finally, Zinc was much further away, being at 0.052Kcal/kg·°C (56% below the theoretical). Our most accurate calculation was made when we tested copper. Our least accurate calculation was made when we tested zinc. This shows that our data was more consistent in the first two tests, as our data was much more accurate with the given values. The only reason our test increased on the first try was because we might not be as familiar with the equipment and important parts that could cause errors. If we had done more trials, I think the error percentage would have decreased. For the third metal, zinc, we could have rushed or been less attentive to the precision of the results because we needed to obtain the data quickly; and/or we could have done numerous tests that would have allowed human errors to be averaged. Unfortunately, this resulted in poorer data. To determine the experimental Cp, we used the formula,〖Cp〗_metal=Q/〖(Boiling-End room Temp)*M〗_metalFor..