Question

assume you are performing the calibration step of experiment 8 and you begin with 80 g of water at 20 oc and 80 g of water at 80 oc. after adding the two portions of water into your calorimeter setup and following the procedure outlined in the experiment, you determine the temperature of the mixed portions of water to be 45 oc. what is the heat capacity of the calorimeter?

Answer 1

To calculate the heat capacity of the calorimeter, one must account for the energy balance between the heat lost by the warmer water, the heat gained by the cooler water, and the heat absorbed by the calorimeter itself, using conservation of energy and the given temperatures.

Step-by-step explanation:

Calculating the Heat Capacity of a Calorimeter

To find the heat capacity of the calorimeter, we use the principle of conservation of energy. The energy gained by the cooler water must equal the energy lost by the warmer water plus the energy absorbed by the calorimeter. Since the mass and temperature change of the water are equal, the heat lost by the warm water can be calculated with the formula:

heat loss by warm water = mass * specific heat of water * temperature change

We can calculate this as:

80g * 4.184 J/g°C * (80°C - 45°C)

The heat gained by the cooler water is:

80g * 4.184 J/g°C * (45°C - 20°C)

However, not all the heat lost by the warm water is gained by the cooler water. Some is absorbed by the calorimeter. Therefore, the heat capacity of the calorimeter (C) can be calculated by rearranging the following equation:

C = (heat loss by warm water - heat gain by cooler water) / temperature change

After inserting the values and solving for C, we get the heat capacity of the calorimeter.