Question

A unit of heat energy that was formerly used frequently was the calorie. Look up the definition of the calorie in your textbook or a handbook and record it here. Calculate the calorimeter constant for your calorimeter in cal/°C .

Answer 1

Answer and Explanation:

Calorie is the unit of heat energy . There are 2 units with the same name 'calorie' which is widely used.

'The amount of heat energy required to increase the temperature of 1 gram of water by mass by $1^{\circ}C$ or 1 K is known as small calorie or gram calorie'.

Another one is large calorie which can be defined as :

'The amount of heat energy required to make arise in temperature of water 1 kg by mass by $1^{\circ}C$ or 1 K is known as large calorie or  kilcalorie and is represented as Cal or kcal'.

After the adoption of SI system, thee units of the metric system cal, C or kilocal are considered deprecated or obsolete with the SI unit for heat energy as 'joule or J'

1 cal = 4.184 J

1C or 1 kilocal = 4184 J

Calorimeter constant:

Calorimeter constant, represented as '$C_{cal}$' is used to quantify the heat capacity or the amount of heat of a calorimeter.

It can be calculated by ther given formula:

${\displaystyle C_{cal}}={\frac {\Delta {H}}{\Delta {T}}}}}$

where,

${\Delta {T}}$ = corresponding temperature change

${\Delta {H}$ = enthalpy change

Its unit is J/K or J/1^{\circ}C[/tex] which can be convertyed to cal/1^{\circ}C[/tex] by dividing the calorimeter constant by 4.184 or 4184 accordingly.