Specific Heat Experiment

A concept that is still difficult for me to grasp is specific heat, and I thought this project would be a perfect place to start in order to comprehend the concept at hand. The specific of heat water is 1 calorie per gram degrees Celsius, but with that in mind can’t we test different solid materials to find their specific heat as well?

How would we perform such a task? By submerging them in hot water. Think about it. We have household items such as aluminum, copper (pennies), iron (Screws), and plastic. Those will be our four manipulating variables. We’ll submerge all of them into 100 grams of water at 30 degrees Celsius and adjust the temperature on a hot plate to 70 degrees Celsius. We’ll check the temperature of the water after it has been raised, and utilize that to find the calories taken to change the temperature of that specific solid metal. An example is written below taken from this website to further display this experiment.

• Aluminum mass (grams) à Heat it in hot water (100 grams of water @ 20 degrees celsius) à Adjust temperature to 70 degrees Celsius à temperature raised to 24.8 degrees Celsius
  • How many calories did this take?
  • Since it takes 1 calories to change the temperature of 1 gram of water 1 degrees Celsius, it takes 480 Calories to heat 100 grams of water 4.8 degrees Celsius.

The Greenhouse Effect

This experiment deals with the concept of the greenhouse gasses that are harmful for our environment due to aspects such as an increase in natural disasters, organisms extinctions, sea levels rising, climate change, and overall apprehension in terms of our future on this planet, and if our grandchildren will be able to survive on it. The main component of Greenhouse Gas Emissions is CO2 or also known as Carbon Dioxide.

For this experiment there will be two containers. One being the control and the other being one filled with Carbon Dioxide to emphasize climate change, and what an impact it has on our environment. The containers will symbolize the environment, so although container one which is the control will not have any added gasses to it, except the addition of water, container 2 will have baking soda in addition to the same amount of water utilized in container 1. They will both be sealed under a light source, which symbolizes the sun.

Why is it important to make sure each container is the same except for the addition of CO2? Because if the Carbon Dioxide is not the only thing that is equivalent within the two containers than the change in temperature (because there will be thermometers in each container) may be different (more or less) due to another factor that wasn’t supposed to be a manipulating variable.

Kinetic Energy experiment

This is pretty self-explanatory, but using four items measure the potential and kinetic energy at the beginning and end of four different balls on the same ramp. The manipulative variables would be the balls, and the thing that would change as a result of it is the kinetic and potential energy. The Energy’s would be dependent on the mass’s used. You can calculate this by these two formulas.

Potential Energy is mgh and Kinetic Energy is 1/2mv^2. This experiment seems way too simple, thus why I don’t want to utilize this design considering it lacks complexity, which wouldn’t make my group feel challenged in any way.

Conclusion

I feel like the most beneficial learning experience would be the first experiment considering it’s a topic that is still difficult for many individual’s in the class to understand and this would shed some informative light on the top

Introduction

Mr. Tom Vales arrived into our Contemporary and Innovation Science Class with a plethora of equipment that looked like it belonged to a mad scientist. Don’t get me wrong, his overall presence paired with his metal equipment captivated me right from the get go. I didn’t know what to expect, but I knew the class was in for a treat. Before I begin elaborating on what he showed us, let me focus on the categories in which he delved into. These consisted of Tesla Coils, a Sterling Engine, Mendicino Motor, Peltier Cooler, and Quack Medical Devices. Now the vast majority of these devices are not foreign to this course, and if they are there are concepts within them that we have discussed previously which made Vales demonstration that much more meaningful.

Tesla Coils

As Vales said it, Tesla Coils are essentially old school wifi. This amazing invention created by Nikola Tesla is a transformer that generates high voltages which is absolutely magnificent considering it transmits energy with no use of wires, and it’s controlled. With such an amazing invention Vales showed us how it could light lights whilst having no physical (seeable) contact with the light whatsoever. We heard about Tesla Coils in the past; however, seeing the physical manifestation of it reassured that the class could actually understand the concept fully, and what it meant for the future of our society as we know it.

Sterling Engine

A Stirling Engine was displayed in front of Professor Thomas Vales was a tiny model underneath a hot cup of water. What is it? It is essentially a heat engine. What makes this unique, is that overtime it has not changed, except the materials in which it was presented. Where is this used? Now, although this has a lot of potential to be used considering its efficiency, it is used in submarines. The silent noise that is created through this engine makes this efficient to be used underwater due to the reality that scientists don’t want any sea creatures hearing the submarine. Think about it. Sea creatures have a strong sense of hearing, and a regular engine would scare some sea creatures, attract others, some dangerous, some not dangerous. A submarine crew would not want to attract sea creatures towards them, or simultaneously disturb the habitat underwater thus why the Stirling Engine is such an essential component. The Stirling Engine’s significance resides in its ability to be efficient and cater to such specific needs.

Mendocino Motor

Professor Vales started off by saying how this holds no significance except for educating purposes. That means that it holds tremendous purpose. This is a solar powered motor that is levitated through magnetics, and as a result the closed circuit generates currents through the coil. What this taught me personally is how scientific concepts can intermingle to create innovative inventions that can better society in unexpected ways.

Peltier Cooler

Peltier Cooler obviously utilizes the Peltier effect. Lets recall what we learned about thermoelectric energy, and how it intermingles with the concept of peltier. Remember the Peltier effect simply regards an either heating or cooling through a current being passed through two materials. Think of it as an input and an output. This is essentially extremely important in regards to how heat energy can be recycled in multiple aspects of our lives. This also relates to the concept of cooling, and heating and with a slight shift both of them can be accomplished.

Quack Medical Devices

Arrays of fluorescent-lighted tools were presented to us. These were the radium cures that were meant to cure any illness by placing it on the region of pain within an individual’s body. During that time period anyone could profess to be a doctor, and fallibly apply this expensive treatment to a patient, exposing them to radiation. A carcinogenic treatment that caused cancer for some. This unfortunate reality spurs us individuals living presently to be thankful for science, medical, and health advancements that have happened in order for us to not to be concerned about these entities that plagued the individual’s of previous generations.

Conclusion

Having a physical representation of what we have discussed earlier makes absorbing the information that much more easier. Why? Because the students are both engaged and interacting with the material at hand, thus allowing a perfect environment to retain the information that we previously discussed. Professor Vales coming into class was an essential aspect to fully grasp the concepts that we have talked about throughout class.