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Lab 2: Determination of Heat of Fusion

Garrison Glowniak
Lab Partners:
Travis Pischel
Ryan Geil
Amy Gustafson
Date Performed: 12/5/12
Date Submitted: 12/12/12

The experimental goal of this experiment was to determine the value of the heat of fusion of
water, and compare it to the literature value.

In order to determine this value, a few equations were used:

Equation 1
Equation 2

water water
ice f
water water
f
ice
Q m c T
Q m L
m c T
L
m
= A
=
A
= Equation 3
Equation 4
water ice
f f
water ice
m m T
L L
m m T
| | A A A
= + +
|
\ .


The mass of water and the mass of ice, both in kilograms, were needed. The difference in
temperature from the start and finish of the experiment were also needed. It was known that both
Equation 1 and Equation 2 solved for Q, which is energy in joules. Since L
f
was the desired
value, the 2 equations were set equal to each other, and simplified into Equation 3. Equation 4
was used to calculate uncertainties.

To begin, a Styrofoam cup was weighed. Then, water was added to the cup, and it was weighed
once again in order to find the mass of the water. The temperature of this water was recorded.
Next, a few ice cubes were weighed and added to the cup of water. Once all of the ice had
melted, the final temperature was recorded. The original temperature and end temperature were
used to determine the change in temperature. Once all the data was gathered (see Data Table 1),
the values were placed into Equation 3, which resulted in an experimental value for L
f
, the heat
of fusion of water.








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DATA TABLE 1. Heat of Fusion Collected Data
Trial Water mass (kg) Temp original (C) Ice mass (kg) Temp end (C) Change in temp (C) Q (joules) Lf (J/kg)
1 0.1715 21.8 0.0208 11.2 10.6 -7609.73 365852.38
2 0.1919 11.2 0.0168 4.3 6.9 -5542.72 329924
3 0.2798 18.6 0.0261 10.5 8.1 -9487.07 363489.15
4 0.2145 11.5 0.014 6.2 5.3 -4758.5 339918.15
5 0.3868 9.4 0.016 6.1 3.3 -5343.18 333948.62
Average 0.2489 14.5 0.01874 7.66 6.84 -6548.24 346626.46
Uncertainty

0.00005

0.05

3521


Once the calculations were performed, 5 values for L
f
were found. Uncertainty was calculated
using Equation 4. The average value was 3.47x10
5
3521 J/kg. The accepted value of 3.33x10
5

J/kg does not fall into this range. That said, in Trial 5, a value of 3.34x10
5
J/kg was found,
which is extremely close to the literature value. The percent error in the experimental average
was 4.2%, which is a relatively small percent error.