Calorimetry is the measurement of the amount of heat gained or lost during some particular physical or chemical change. Heats of fusion or vaporization, heats of solution, and heats of reaction are examples of the kinds of determination that can be made in calorimetry. The term itself derives the Latin word for heat, caloric, as is the name of the instrument used to make these determinations, the calorimeter.
Little productive work on the measurement of heat changes was accomplished prior to the mid-nineteenth century for two reasons. First, the exact nature of heat itself was not well understood. Until the work of the Scottish chemist Joseph Black in the late eighteenth century, the distinction between temperature and heat was not at all clear. It then took until about 1845 before the nature of heat a…
In essence, a calorimeter is any device in which the temperature before and after some kind of change can be accurately measured. Probably the simplest of such devices is the coffee cup calorimeter so-called because it is made of a styrofoam cup such as the ones in which coffee is commonly served. A styrofoam cup is used because styrofoam is a relatively good insulating material. Heat given off wi…
Suppose that a cube of sugar is burned completely within the bomb of a calorimeter. How can an experimenter determine the heat released in that reaction? To answer that question the assumption is made that all of the heat produced in the reaction is used to raise the temperature of the water in the surrounding jacket and the metalwalls of thebomb itself. The heat absorbed by each is equal to its m…
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