DP1 Physics – Determining The Specific Heat Capacity of Iron
by Ethan Lau, DP1/Grade 11 student
Recently I was assigned an interesting lab activity that I would like to share with you: what it is about, the process, and my reflection on the lab activity.
The objective of my lab activity is to determine the specific heat capacity of iron with a sample of iron which is heated to 100 degrees Celsius in boiling water. Which is then moved into a container of water at room temperature.
During the Lab activity, I first had to collect my materials: a metal cube, a stirring hot plate, a thermometer, a temperature probe, and two beakers for the water. The procedure for this was to first take 100ml of tap water and leave it to rest for a while. While leaving the tap water aside, I had to set the temperature probe to my computer to get an accurate measurement of the tap water I had left aside. I then filled another beaker glass with 100ml of water and placed it onto the stirring hot plate. After I placed the beaker onto the stirring hot plate, I measured the tap water I had left aside, which should be at room temperature, with the temperature probe. I then recorded it down and began boiling the water on the stirring hot plate. Once the water reached its boiling point, I placed the metal cube inside the boiling water and waited for the metal cube to reach 100 degrees Celsius, then measured the metal cube with the temperature probe and recorded the data on a Google spreadsheet. After I recorded the data, I transferred the metal cube from the boiling water to the normal temperature water I placed it aside and then waited for 3 minutes and then recorded the temperature of the metal cube with the temperature probe and recorded the data on Google Sheets.
During the lab activity, there were a few challenges I faced and one of them was connecting the temperature probe to my laptop while transferring the metal cube to the room temperature water. The problem was that I didn’t realise the temperature probe had to be in the water before connecting it to my laptop to measure the data, so to overcome this I transferred the metal cube to the beaker with room-temperature water first and then placed the temperature probe in the beaker.
