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Chemistry Forums for Students => High School Chemistry Forum => Topic started by: sniffinoutthemole on October 03, 2010, 08:16:19 PM

Title: Heat capacity of a calorimeter
Post by: sniffinoutthemole on October 03, 2010, 08:16:19 PM

Okay so my qwater is negative also which is what i think the problem is.
I have 50mL of hot water being added to cold water. The specific heat is 4.18j/Cg. Tmix was calculated at 40.2 and the initial temperature was observed at 42.6. THe average temperature between 24.6 and 60.6 is 42.6.
The formula is Q water= mass x specific heat x (tmix-Tinitial)
the formula for the heat capacity of the calorimeter is qwater/Tmix-Tintial

Is there anyway it being negative makes sense? What do I do if the math supports a negative value?

Title: Re: Heat capacity of a calorimeter
Post by: Borek on October 04, 2010, 06:00:50 AM

Heat capacity is never negative. I guess you are doing something wrong with temperature changes, but your post is too chaotic. Please elaborate what was done during the experiment.