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Course: Heat of Fusion of Water
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Heat of Fusion of Water
Abstract
The aim of this experiment was to determine the specific heat of fusion for the change of phase from ice to water. A method based on the principle of energy conservation was used in the experiment. Simply, the ice absorbs heat that is equal to that lost by the stirrer, calorimeter, and water. Initially, the ice undergoes a change of phase from solid to liquid (melting point). The experiment was conducted by maintaining all the pieces of ice in a funnel until when the pieces would be used to drain off all the water. In the data analysis and uncertainty estimates, graphs were plotted to determine the latent heat of fusion and other variables. Although the specific heat of fusion of ice was determined successfully, some errors occurred during the experiment. As a result, the final values differed slightly from the theoretical ones.
Introduction
The heat of fusion is the heat required to convert a unit mass of a solid into a liquid without changes in temperature. For water at 0 ºC (standard freezing point), the specific heat of fusion is a constant, i.e. 334 J g-1. In other words, water needs to absorb 334 J of heat for it to
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The heat equation applies only at the freezing/ melting transition. At this point, the temperature does not change. When a substance is heated at a temperature below its melting point, the temperature of the ice to rise continuously up to its melting point. Although heat is applied in the process, no rise in temperature is observed. As the ice continues to melt, the temperature of the water increases gradually. In this experiment, the principle of conservation of energy was used and the first equation was as follows: ∑∆Q = 0. Similarly, ∆Q = mLf. Therefore, ∆Qc + ∆Qw + ∆Q ice + ∆Qi →(l) + ∆Q m ice