Determine the Specific Heat Capacity of a solid block of material. Heat it with an electric heater for a short time. Allow the temperature to stabilise and record it. Repeat the heating and stabilising steps until a graph is formed. Use it to calculate the result.
The heat input can be calculated by multiplying the electrical power and the time. Heat input = VIt, where t is the time for which the current flows through the heater.
This heat will increase the temperature of the block.
The heat capacity of the block is the amount of heat it takes to raise its temperature by one degree.
The specific heat capacity is the heat required to raise the temperature of one kilogram of the material by one degree.
The equation relating the heat input and the temperature rise of the block is
V I t = C m (Tfinal - Tinitial)
Note that (Tfinal - Tinitial)/t is the gradient of the graph. Note also that each block of material has a different mass, so remember to take that into account.
Heat 15.7
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