PHY212: General Physics II Laboratory
Instructor: Tony Zable
page 1 of 6
Experiment: Temperature and Heat
Purpose
 to investigate the relationship between heat energy transferred, mass and temperature
change

to investigate the relationship between temperature change and the type of liquid used

to determine the specific heat capacity of water and vegetable oil

to estimate the effect of the heating coil on temperature change
Preliminary questions:
1. Consider a Styrofoam cup containing 100 grams of water. You transfer 500 J of heat
energy to the water in the cup. Calculate the change in the temperature of the water. If
the water was initially at the room temperature of 22 oC, calculate the final temperature of
the water.
2. Now, consider a Styrofoam cup containing 200 grams of water (at room temperature).
This time you transfer 500 J of heat energy (same as above) to the water in the cup.
Calculate the change in the temperature and the final temperature of the water. How does
your answer compare to the answer in (1)?
3. You transfer 1000J of heat energy to a cup containing 100 g water (at room temperature).
Calculate the change in the temperature and the final temperature of the water. How does
your answer compare to the answer in 1)?
4. Lastly, you transfer 500 J of heat energy to a cup containing 100 g vegetable oil (at the
same room temperature). Would you expect to obtain the same change in temperature
for the oil as you would for water (in (1))? Calculate the change in the temperature and
the final temperature of the oil. How does your answer compare to the answer in 1)?
Introduction
In this lab you will examine the quantitative relationship between the amount of heat energy
absorbed, the mass and the change in temperature for 2 different fluids: water and vegetable
oil. To do this you will need to investigate all three factors by changing only one variable at
the time. For example, you can use the same mass of room-temperature water and vary only
the amount of heat energy you transfer. Alternatively, you can use the same amount of heat
energy and vary the mass of the water. Finally, you can use the same mass of the fluid and
the same heat energy and vary the type of the fluid (use oil instead of water). The
relationship between the physical quantities is:
PHY212: General Physics II Laboratory
Instructor: Tony Zable
page 2 of 6
Q=c.m.T
To control the amount of heat energy transferred to the water in this experiment, you will
use a computer controlled Heat Pulser that acts like a switch, turning on the immersion
heater for 5-second pulses every time you click the “Pulse” button on your screen.
WARNING:
1. DO NOT PLUG IN THE IMMERSION HEATER UNLESS IT IS IMMERSED IN LIQUID.
2. USE ENOUGH LIQUID IN EACH CASE TO MAKE SURE THE ELECTRIC COIL IS COVERED.
3. DO NOT CONNECT THE HEAT PULSER TO THE LabPRO INTERFACE UNLESS THE
INTERFACE IS ON AND THE LOGGERPRO SOFTWARE IS RUNNING.
Materials





Heat Pulser with immersion heater
temperature sensor
LoggerPro software
Window-based computer
Styrofoam cup




water
vegetable oil
stirring rod
gram balance
Experiment:
A) Relationship between heat energy and temperature change (constant mass of
water)
1. Plug heat pulser into DIG/Sonic1 slot in the LabPro interface and the temperature
probe into CH1.
2. Place the temperature sensor and the heater into the foam cup. Measure out 100g
(100mL) of water at room temperature and pour into cup. Make sure the water
covers the coil.
3. Open the LoggerPro software. From File menu, open the experiment file called
“Phy202-Lab3_HeatAndTemp.MBL”. Plug in the Heat Pulser and the Temperature
Sensor. Connect the immersion heater to the Heat Pulser.
4. Record the initial temperature from the window at the bottom of the screen. Press
“Collect”. STIR THE WATER VIGOROUSLY THE ENTIRE TIME THE COMPUTER IS
GRAPHING THE TEMPERATURE. For the first 10 seconds, don’t pulse the heater. Then
pulse the heater by clicking on the “Pulse” button. Wait for about 10 seconds then
repeat for a total of 5 pulses. KEEP STIRRING.
5. After the temperature stops changing, pulse 5 more times (pausing 10 seconds
between pulses). After the last pulse, wait for the temperature to stop changing.
End data collection (or wait for the computer to stop recording on its own).
6. From the Data menu, click “Store latest run” to keep your data on the screen.
7. For each region on the graph where the temperature is flat (at the end of the first 5
pulses) highlight the flat region. Use the “Statistics” button to determine the
average temperature for this region. Record the average high temperature at the
end of the first 5 pulses in Table #1 as the final temperature.
PHY212: General Physics II Laboratory
Instructor: Tony Zable
page 3 of 6
8. Calculate the temperature change and the temperature change per pulse and record
them in Table 1.
9. Record the highest temperature at the end of the second 5 pulses (10 total pulses in
all) in the Table 1.
10. Highlight the flat temperature region at the end of the second 5 pulses. Use the
“Statistics” button to determine the average temperature for this region. Record
the average high temperature at the end of the second 5 pulses (10 pulses in all) in
Table #1 as the final temperature.
11. Calculate the temperature change and the temperature change per pulse and record
them in Table 1.
Question 1. What does your graph indicate about the relationship between the temperature
change and quantity of heat energy transferred to the water for a fixed amount of water?
Question 2. Does the temperature change produced by a fixed quantity of heat energy
depend on how warm the water is?
Question 3. How pulses of heat do you think it would take to produce the same
temperature change for 200 g of water?
Table 1
Mass of
water
grams
Initial
temperature
Final
temperature
Temperature
change
Number of
heat
pulses
100
5
100
10
Temperature
change per
pulse
200
50
150
B) Relationship between heat energy and amount (mass) of water (constant
temperature change)
1. Using the same set-up, replace the cup with a 200-grams cup of water at room
temperature. Record the initial temperature.
PHY212: General Physics II Laboratory
Instructor: Tony Zable
page 4 of 6
2. Repeat the experiment in Part A, transferring enough pulses of heat to PRODUCE
THE SAME TEMPERATURE CHANGE as produced in Part A.
3. Calculate the temperature change, number of pulses and temperature change per
pulse and record the data in Table 1. Store the data.
4. Repeat the experiment with 50 grams and 150 grams of water.
5. Cut-and-paste the graphs into Microsoft Word and print.
Question 4. Was your answer to question 3 correct? Explain.
C) The specific heat of water (cwater)
The specific heat of the water is the amount of energy heat that will produce a temperature
change of 1 degree in a unit mass of material.
Specific heat capacity = cwater = Q/(mT)
You will use the data from steps A and B to calculate the specific heat of the water,
knowing that each pulse transferred 1000 joules of heat energy to the water. (Each pulse
takes 5 seconds, and the power rating of the immersion heater is 200W)
1) Enter the number of pulses and temperature change in the data table #2.
2) Calculate the total heat energy transferred by the immersion heater.
3) Calculate the specific heat capacity for each run
4) Calculate the average value of the specific heat you calculated. Compare it to the
accepted value.
Table 2
Mass of
water (kg)
# of pulses
QTotal (J)
T
Specific heat
capacity
Average:
Uncertainty:
(accepted) cwater = ___________
% Error = ________________
Question 5. Why does your average specific heat capacity value for water not agree with
the accepted value?
PHY212: General Physics II Laboratory
Instructor: Tony Zable
page 5 of 6
Question 6. It turns out that all of the heat energy generated does not leave the metal heat
coil itself. The specific heat capacity for the heat coil is about 450 J/kgoC. Estimate the
mass of metal heating coil.
Assume that the specific heat capacity of water is 4186 J/kgoC and the temperature change
for the coil is the same as that of the water (i.e. same initial temperature before pulses and
same final temperature).
Mass of Heat Coil: __________ {You will need this value for later…}
D) Specific heat of vegetable oil
An alternative method to determine specific heat capacity is to plot the graph Q versus T.
According to the heat equation, the graph should be linear, and the slope of the graph will
be ________(fill in the blank). In the last section of this experiment, you will use this
graphical method to determine the specific heat capacity for vegetable oil.
1) Using the same set-up, collect 5 data points for the table below using 100 g of oil. Be
sure to use a clean and dry Styrofoam cup. (Reminder: A heat pulse transfers 1000 J of
energy).
WARNING: DO NOT HEAT THE OIL OVER 70oC AT ANY TIME DURING THE EXPERIMENT.
Table #3
Mass of oil
Total # of pulses
(cumulative)
Total heat energy
transferred Q (J)
Final T
2) Plot the graph of Q versus T. Is the slope of the graph linear?
3) From the slope of the graph (over the linear region), determine the specific heat of oil.
Slope of Graph = ________________
Std. Dev. of slope = _______________
coil =__________________ (from graph)
4) Cut-and-paste the graph into Word.
PHY212: General Physics II Laboratory
Instructor: Tony Zable
page 6 of 6
5) The accepted specific heat capacity for vegetable is 1690 J/kgoC. How does your
specific heat capacity value compare to this?
6) Using the calculated mass of the heat coil from Part B, re-calculate the specific heat
capacity for the oil.
coil =__________________ (adjusted for the heat coil)
% Error = _______________ (adjusted compared to the accepted value)
Question 7. Which has the higher specific heat capacity, water or oil? Discuss the possible
advantages and disadvantages of cooking with water vs oil.