You can’t get through a science or engineering degree without having performed a calorimetry lab. A calorimetry experiment is made of of inexpensive equipment (it only uses a coffee cup and a thermometer) and the calculations needed to do the experiment are pretty easy, so you can already tell that teachers are going to like them. They are useful in figuring out the specific heat capacity and the heat of fucion or dissolution of an unknown substance (usually a lump of metal). Here’s how to make a coffee cup calorimeter and do the calculations:
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Yes, we want as much heat as possible to go into the water.
Do you have to put a lid on the coffee cup to prevent heat escaping into the surrounding air?