heat capacity

Amount and rate of heat transfer using iron spheres and liquid nitrogen

Dean Campbell | Tue, 06/04/2024 - 11:00

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When iron spheres at room temperature are added to liquid nitrogen, the nitrogen boils as heat is transferred in from the iron. The amount of liquid nitrogen boiled depends on the amount of heat transferred, which depends on the mass of the iron added. However, the rate at which liquid nitrogen boils depends on the surface area of the iron in contact with the liquid nitrogen. These phenomena can be studied with experiments which measure the mass lost by the boiling liquid nitrogen.

An Experimental Demonstration of Hess's Law

Philip Penketh | Sun, 08/02/2020 - 10:03

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The application of Hess's Law frequently presents students with conceptual problems. This series of experiments confirms Hess's Law and offers a robust understanding of this principle. This can be done as a demo completed by the teacher or as a lab with groups of students.

ADI, Specific Heat and Getting Students to Follow Instructions.

Chad Husting | Tue, 03/20/2018 - 19:25

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Having had positive experience using Argument Driven Inquiry (ADI), I decided to try and adapt a specific heat lab to the ADI process.

Break the Ice with Mystery Blocks

Stephanie O'Brien | Thu, 02/15/2018 - 20:00

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In an effort to align my lessons with the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), I have tried to take the content I have traditionally taught, and shift the design to focus on student engagement with the science and engineering practices outlined in the standards. For the topic of heat transfer I re-packaged the ice melting blocks discrepant event as a NGSS investigative phenomena.

A different way to look at heat and energy....

Chad Husting | Sun, 04/03/2016 - 16:49

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Each year we work on specific heat of materials and the heat of fusion of ice. These are two labs that are typical for most chemistry classrooms. Most of the experiments involve a simple calorimetry experiment that uses a styrofoam cup and provides generally good results. There tend to be a couple of key ideas with all of these experiments.