Specific Heat

Purpose : The purpose of this lab was to find the specific heat of an unknown metal in order to calculate how much energy the metal produced.

Background : 
                          Specific Heats           J/ g*c
                                Water               4.184
                                 Al                    0.897
                                Brass                0.385
                                 Cu                   0.385
                                Lead                0.129
                         Stainless Steal         0.490
                                 Zn                  0.390
In this lab you learned how to test the calories of an unknown metal by heating the metal and measuring how much heat it gave off. The data we will collect is the weight and temperature of everything. You can never have enough data.

Data:
Trial 1:
 Temperature of water: 20.3 C
 Temperature of water and metal: 20.5 C
 Temperature of water boiled and water: 99.3 C
 Temperature of cold water: 21.0 C
 Temperature of metal in water in the Styrofoam: 26.0 C
 Mass of beaker: 116.84g
 Mass of beaker and water: 257.73g
Mass of beaker, water, and metal: 285.71g
Mass of beaker, water and metal after boiling: 271.89g
Weight of Styrofoam cup: 2.00
Weight of water and Styrofoam cup: 96.55g

Trial 2:
 Temperature of water: 20.1 C
 Temperature of water and metal: 20.3 C
 Temperature of water boiled and metal: 99.5 C
 Temperature of cold water: 20.0 C
 Temperature of metal in water in the Styrofoam: 26.3 C
 Mass of beaker: 116.85g
 Mass of beaker and water: 231.98g
 Mass of beaker, water, and metal: 278.10g
Mass of beaker, water and metal after boiling: 265.50g
Weight of Styrofoam cup: 2.00g
Weight of water and Styrofoam cup: 96.55g

Calculations:    Q = m*c*∆T

Q = heat water gained
m = mass 
c = specific heat 
T = temperature change 

Mass: 2.00g
Temp change: 5.0 C
Temp water change: 78.3 C
Heat water gained: Q = 94.4 * 4.184 J/g*c*5g
                              Q = 1974.848 J Specific heat for metal: 

Q/m*c = c

1974.848J / 2022.954g*c = .897 J/g*c 


Analysis:  
In this lab I learned to measure absolutely every thing, it never hurts to measure the weight of something or the temperature ever single time! I needed to be more organized with my data table and I needed to be sure of what I needed to measure before even going near the lab. I had to do this lab several times in order to get the right measurements and temperatures recorded. 


Conclusion: 
The metal we received as an unknown was found to be Aluminum because the heat it gave off was .897 J/g*c which matches up perfectly with Aluminum's specific heat in the specific heat table.