Cuyamaca College Chemistry Specific Heat of Aluminum on A Sunny Day Lab Report

3-3: Specific Heat of AlOn a sunny day, the water in a swimming pool may warm up a degree or two while the concrete aroundthe pool may become too hot to walk on with bare feet. This may seem strange since the water andconcrete are being heated by the same source—the sun. This evidence suggests that it takes more heat toraise the temperature of some substances than others, which is true. The amount of heat required to raisethe temperature of 1 g of a substance by 1 degree is called the specific heat capacity or specific heat ofthat substance. Water, for instance, has a specific heat of 4.18 J/K?g. This value is high in comparisonwith the specific heats for other materials, such as concrete or metals. In this experiment, you will use asimple calorimeter and your knowledge of the specific heat of water to measure the specific heat ofaluminum (Al).1. Start Virtual ChemLab, select Thermodynamics, and then select Specific Heat of Al from the list ofassignments. The lab will open in the Calorimetry laboratory.2. Record the mass of Al on the balance. If it is too small to read click on the Balance area to zoom in,record the mass of Al in the data table below, and return to the laboratory.3. Pick up the Al sample from the balance pan and place the sample in the oven. Click the oven door toclose. The oven is set to heat to 200?C.4. The calorimeter has been filled with 100 mL water. The density of water at 25?C is 0.998 g/mL. Usethe density of the water to determine the mass of water from the volume and record the volume andmass in the data table.Make certain the stirrer is On (you should be able to see the shaft rotating). In the thermometerwindow, click Save to begin recording data. Allow 20-30 seconds to obtain a baseline temperature ofthe water. You can observe the temperature in the calorimeter as a function of time using the graphwindow.5. Click on the Oven to open it. Drag the hot Al sample from the oven until it snaps into place above thecalorimeter and drop it in. Click the thermometer and graph windows to bring them to the front andobserve the change in temperature in the graph window until it reaches a constant value and then waitan additional 20-30 seconds. Click Stop in the temperature window. (You can click on the clock onthe wall labeled Accelerate to accelerate the time in the laboratory.) A data link icon will appear inthe lab book. Click the data link icon and record the temperature before adding the Al and the highesttemperature after adding the Al in the data table. (Remember that the water will begin to cool downafter reaching the equilibrium temperature.)Data TableAlmass of metal (g)volume of water (mL)mass of water (g)initial temperature of water (?C)initial temperature of metal (?C)max temp of water + metal (?C)Beyond Labz, all rights reserved6. Calculate the change in temperature of the water (?Twater).7. Calculate the heat (q), in J, gained by the water using the following equation_qwater= mwater ??Twater ?Cwater, given Cwater= 4.184 J/(K?g)8. Calculate the changes in temperature of the Al (?TAl).9. Remembering that the heat gained by the water is equal to the heat lost by the metal, calculate thespecific heat of aluminum in J/K?g.qwater= ?qmetal = mAl ??TAl ?CAland( )( ) metal metalmetalAlm TqC?=10. Calculate the percent error in the specific heat value that you determined experimentally. Theaccepted value for Al is 0.903 J/ K?g.100accepted answeryour answer accepted answer% Error ??=% Error =