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Specific Heat Capacity of a Metal

http://www.ilsitodi.it/laboratoriodifisica/calorespecifico/calorespecifico.html How to Measure Specific Heat Capacity of a Metal The specific heat capacity, often simply called specific heat, refers to the amount of heat ( joule or cal) required to cause a unit of mass (say a gram or a kilogram) to change its temperature by 1°C or 1°K. Standard metric units are Joules/kilogram/Kelvin (J/kg/K). More commonly used units are J/g/°C or cal/g/°C.
  • Add a known mass (mw) of the water, enough to cover metal sample, in the calorimeter
  • Measure the temperature of the water (tw)
  • Measure the mass of the metal sample (ms). Metal is heated in a bunsen hot water bath
  • Record the temperature (ts) of the hot metal. (it is the same as the hot water)
  • Use the tongs to carefully pick up the metal sample and transfer it QUICKLY to the calorimeter and watch the temperature - stirring a little until it stabilizes.
  • Record the stable temperature (tc).
Do the math The specific heat of he material under investigation is given by: mw/ms * (tc-tw)/(ts-tc)