This is the first lab out of the 8 we have planned. They are supposed to help you understand the concepts in a real life setting. We don’t keep the work too high, but do stress the concepts.
This week’s is simple since we’re just getting used to the whole term. We are going to measure the specific heat of water using basic tools. It might be a review, but it’s just here to get you back into analytical thinking and in fact many of you probably have done so in classes in the past. The next one uses things we’ve talked about. So far, nothing too much has been said.
Specific heat measures the amount of energy required to change a state of matter into another. Each type of matter has one, and we’re going to focus on water. Particularly water in liquid form to vapor.
Take some time (10min). and discuss it with your teammates: how would you guys do it? Do you even think a specific heat exists? Later, we’ll see how you guys would do it.
and so on…
(just a demo of lab).