Lab 11A: Specific Heat of a Metal

For this lab, we just had to find the identity of an unknown block of metal. How we did that was we first found the temperature of this block of metal at a boiling temperature, then we found it at room temperature, thus giving us the power to find the specific heat of the metal, which then lead to the identity of the metal.

Mass of styrofoam cup: 7.87g

Mass of cup + water: 128.22g

Mass of water 120.35g

Initial temperature of water in cup: 20.9 C

Initial Temperature of metal in boiling water: 100.0 C

Final temperature of metal and water: 29.0 C

Mass of metal alone: 89.04g

Heat gained by water: 120.35g*4.184J/gC*8.1C=4079J

Specific Heat of Metal: -4079J/(89.04g)*(20.9C-100.0C)=0.58J/gC

Based off this, the closest metal would be steel. The reason for error would be that perhaps the thermometer was slightly off, or just a few incorrect measurements (i.e. being of by a few tenths of a gram on measurement).