For each of the numbered lab projects below, answer all of:
  1. Do the required measurements and computations.
  2. State all assumptions explicitly.
  3. List the largest errors in each experiment and categorize each as systematic or random.
  4. State the measured value +/- error estimate (compute this - i.e., from estimates of input errors, not just difference from accepted value)
  5. Extra credit for probing questions appropriate to each measurement.
  1. Computer the value of absolute zero in oC from measurements.
    See here for data.
  2. Measure the specific heat capacity of Al, Cu, or Fe.
  3. Measure the latent heat of :
    1. fusion, Lf, for water by melting ice or snow.
    2. vaporization, Lv, for water by condensing steam.
    3. vaporization, Lv, for water by boiling in vacuum.
    See here for data and computations from 2008.
  4. Measure the work equivalent of 1 cal by:
    1. lifting and dropping metal chips several hundred times
    2. friction heating Al drum
  5. Measure the efficiency of a microwave oven.
  6. Compute the heat output of a gallon of fuel from measurements.
    When we heated 200gm of water with 5'cm' of 70% isopropyl alcohol, it went from 23.0 to 27.0 degC.
    When we heated 200gm of water with 6.1'cm' gasoline (at 1'cm'==.12mL), the water heated up from 27.1 to 37.3 degC.
    Assuming 50% of the heat from the flame ends up as thermal energy in the water, Q = (200gm *1cal/gm/oC *10.2oC)/0.5 = 4080cal
    6.1 'cm' *(.12mL/1'cm') = .732 mL gasoline, so 4080 cal / .732 mL = 5574 cal/mL
    5574 cal/mL *(4.186J/cal) *(3785mL/gallon) = 88 MJ/gal, not too far gone from the published value of ~130MJ/gallon
  7. Measure the temperature of a flame using an iron nut. Use Mcan=58.22gm, Mcan+water=267.48gm, Ti,calorimeter=23.8oC.
    I heated a 16.72gm steel nut up as hot as the Fischer burner would heat it, I dropped it into the prepared calorimeter and its temperature rose to Tf,calorimeter=33.6oC,
  8. Measure the heat transfer rate through glass.
  9. Measure the solar insolation (not insulation, insolation is the heat flux in W/m2) and compute, using this value, the equilibrium temperature of the earth. Recall that we did this in class by equating Pin to Pout = thermal radiation by all 4πR2 of the Earth's surface.