Tuesday 7 October 2014

Calculating the Specific Heat Capacity of Aluminium using Dataloging


I took a 1kg Mass of Aluminium and heated with an Immersion Heater for 10 minutes. After heating I left the Mass with the hrater in but switched off for another 3 minutes until the temperature settled.

The Al mass was insulated to prevent too much heat from escaping.
I used a PASCO  temperature probe to record the temperature change.

The blue line represented the temperature and the red line the voltage.
Temp start 20.7
Temp end  41.3
Voltage 10.1V Current 3.84A Time 600 secs
Mass 1 Kg

From this data we can work out the specific Heat Capacity of Aluminium

Energy in = Volts x Amps x Time

Energy in = 10.1.x 3.84 x 600 = 23270.3 Joules

SHC Al =  Energy In / Mass x Change in temp

SHC AL = 23270.3 / 1 x 21.6 = 1077.8 J/K

Its a bit high rather than the theoretical value of 913 but then the insulationwasn't as good as it could be.



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