P2 Aiming for 8

Student checkpoint follow-up

Name....................................................................... Class................... Date......................

P2 Energy transfer by heating – Aiming for Grade 8

Aims
You will investigate the time it takes to heat different volumes of water and link
the results to specific heat capacity.
You will compare materials used to build and insulate houses in terms of their
thermal conductivity and specific heat capacity.
You will make a model of the Earth and look at how the temperature of your
‘Earth’ changes when the ‘atmosphere’ changes. You will look at the strengths
and weaknesses of the model.

Learning objectives
After completing this activity, you should be able to:
 calculate specific heat capacity and apply your knowledge of specific heat
capacity to make predictions
 apply what you know about thermal conductivity to analyse the structure of
buildings and analyse other situations
 analyse data in terms of specific heat capacity
 explain why the temperature of the Earth is increasing.

Safety
 Wear goggles when heating. The heating equipment and water will get hot!
Take care. Allow all equipment to cool down before you move it. Check hazards
involved in heating a different liquid.
 Take precautions not to injure yourself or others if you use a lamp to heat
the bottles.
Equipment
Part 1
 400 cm3 beaker
 Water
 Thermometer
 Stop clock
 Tripod, gauze, heatproof mat, Bunsen burner or immersion heater and
power supply
 A liquid that is not water

Part 2
 Samples of materials found in building houses and insulating houses
 Graph paper

Part 3

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Student checkpoint follow-up
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 Two plastic bottles, each with the top quarter of the bottle removed
 Two thermometers
 Tape
 Cardboard
 Soil
 Plastic wrap
 Elastic bands
 Access to direct sunlight or a lamp
 Graph paper

Setting the scene

The time it takes to heat a liquid depends on the mass of water that you use.
Builders carefully choose the materials to build and insulate homes with according
to how readily they transfer heat.
You can model the effect of the Sun’s energy on the Earth.

Task
Part 1: Heating liquids
A Plan an investigation into how the volume of water in a beaker affects the time
it takes to raise the temperature of the water by 10 °C. You should include:
a a hypothesis
b a plan to collect precise and accurate data.
B Predict the shape of the graph that you will get when you plot your results.
C Carry out the investigation and plot the graph of results. Compare it to your
prediction.

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Part 2: Thermal conductivity and insulation

A Look at the samples of materials, then look at the table below. The thermal
conductivity value tells you how quickly energy is transferred across the
material when the temperature difference across it is 1 °C.

Material Thermal conductivity in W/m K Specific heat capacity in J/kg °C

brick (inner) 0.56 900
brick (outer) 0.77 1000
expanded polystyrene 0.04 1400
foam for cavity walls 0.02 1400
mineral wool for lofts 0.04 1030
plaster 0.57 1000
plasterboard 0.21 1000
render 1.00 1000
tiles 1.30 900

B Display these data on a suitable graph or chart.

Part 3: Radiation and the greenhouse effect
1 You can model the Earth and Sun, and the effect of the increase of
greenhouse gases.

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2 Take two plastic bottles and fill the bottom of each with soil to a depth of
about 5 cm.
3 Tape a thermometer to the inside of each bottle, and tape a piece of card
over the bulb of the thermometer.
4 Cover one of the bottles with plastic wrap and secure it with an elastic band.
5 Read the temperature of the bottles each minute, or at longer time intervals if
you cannot see a temperature change.
6 Plot a graph of temperature against time. Plot a graph of temperature against
time. Plot the graphs for both bottles on the same axes so you can compare them.

Questions
Part 1: Heating liquids
1 aDescribe your plan in Part 1 of the Task to collect precise and accurate data.

(6 marks)

b Explain your prediction about the shape of the graph.

(1 mark)

2 aDescribe and explain the shape of your graph of time against volume of liquid.

(3 marks)

b Suggest one reason that there might be outliers in this experiment.

(1 mark)

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c Explain why you might expect the time to be proportional to the volume of water.

(6 marks)

3 The specific heat capacity of water is 4200 J/kg °C. 100 cm3 of water has a
mass of 100 g. Use the equation below to calculate the energy transferred to
the water for each volume, and write your results in the table. (4 marks)
change in thermal energy (J)  mass (kg)  specific heat capacity (J/kg °C) 
change in temperature (°C)

Volume of water Time for temperature to rise by Change in thermal energy

in cm3 10 °C in s in J

4 Use your answers to Question 3 to suggest and explain whether the energy
transferred to the water per second is constant.

(2 marks)

Part 2: Thermal conductivity and insulation

5 Describe and explain in terms of energy transfer what is happening when the
temperature of your house is:
a increasing

(1 mark)

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b staying constant

(1 mark)

c decreasing.

(1 mark)

6 Explain why you can use a steel spoon to stir your tea, but it is safer to use a
wooden spoon to stir hot soup that you are making.

(4 marks)

7 A house owner researches the cost of some insulating materials, and the
money that she would save each year. Calculate the difference in payback
time if she insulates the loft with 200 mm insulation compared to 100 mm
insulation.
Area of loft space  100 m2
Cost of roll of 100 mm thick loft insulation that covers 8.3 m2  £20
Cost of putting the insulation into the loft  £120
Savings per year  £80 per 100 mm

(6 marks)

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8 aLook at the graph that you plotted in Part 2 of the Task. Explain the different
uses of the materials in the table in terms of thermal conductivity.

(1 mark)

b Explain why there are no metals in the list of building materials.

(2 marks)

c Air has a thermal conductivity of 0.25 W/m K.

Use this information to explain the structure of the materials used for
insulating a house.

(3 marks)

d Suggest why loft insulation is a popular choice for people who want to
reduce energy transfer from their home.

(3 marks)

e i Suggest why it is useful that the building materials have similar specific
heat capacities.

(2 marks)

ii Suggest why it is useful that the insulating materials have higher

specific heat capacities than the building materials.

(3 marks)

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Part 3: Radiation and the greenhouse effect

9 Name the type of radiation that all objects emit.

(1 mark)

10 Suggest how scientists measure the average ‘temperature change of the Earth’.

(3 marks)

11 Compare the energy transfers involved in keeping your house at the same
temperature with those involved in keeping the Earth at the same temperature.

(5 marks)

12 Look at the model of the Earth in Part 3 of the Task and your graph.
a Describe the strengths and weaknesses of the model.

(4 marks)

b Describe and explain the shape of the graph for each bottle.

(2 marks)

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c Suggest how you could change the model to investigate the effect of
increasing levels of greenhouse gases.

(1 mark)

d Write down one reason why the levels of CO2 in the atmosphere are increasing.

(1 mark)

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