INTRODUCTION Heat Capacity was named by Joseph Black back in the 1750s because bodies were capable of holding

a certain amount of fluid. Density, or at least density volume by displacement, was discovered and by a man named Archimedes who was given a crown by the kind of Syracuse and needed to know how dense it was. Archimedes was in his bathtub one day and noticed that the water rose when he entered the tub. Archimedes decided to try this same method with the crown and sure enough, it worked and has to this very day. Determining an elements specific heat capacity can them lead us to identify what element we are working with. The object of this experiment is to determine what unidentified object we are working with. We were given a table of elements and their specific heat capacity and we are to determine which element we have based on the table. There are a few equations that are essential to this process. In order to determine density, we must use this equation:

m , where D=Density, m=mass, and v=volume v

In this particular experiment, we are trying to determine the specific heat of an object, in this case, copper and brass. In order to do this, we need to use the heat capacity formula that follows:

Q m C p T , where Q=amount of heat in joules, m=mass,

C=specific heat capacity, and T=change in temperature. MATERIALS AND METHODS Apparatus. We used a Calorimeter for the first time. A calorimeter is used to measure the heat change in the element after it was in boiling water. A thermometer is stuck through the top hole to measure and the calorimeter should be covered or have a lid. Reagents. We used a brick-like sample of both copper and brass that was provided by the instructor. We also used water, in this experiment. Safety Considerations. The Bunsen burner was very hot. We used hot pads when needed for the hot beakers. There was also boiling water that we needed to be careful not to spill or touch. When removing the samples from the boiling water, we used the crucible tongs so we would not be burned. Procedures. We began the experiment by taking the mass of both the brass and copper samples first with a ruler and used the formula for volume, and then volume by displacement in a graduated cylinder. We started with boiling water over the Bunsen burner in a beaker and placed the sample in the boiling water for about 7 minutes. We then took out the sample and placed it into the calorimeter to find the temperature. We did this with both the brass and the copper samples.

Once we had the heat change data, we then plugged the data we found into the correct formula to determine which element we had. We were given a list of elements and their specific heat, so the one that was the closest to our discovery was the unknown element we had.