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The Physics Teacher -- December 2011 -- Volume 49, Issue 9, pp. 574

Laboratory Activity: Specific Heat by Change in Internal Energy of Silly Putty

John Koser

University of St. Thomas, St. Paul, MN

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Students in introductory physics courses often don't study thermodynamics or thermodynamic events. If any thermal physics is taught in introductory courses (e.g., Physics 101 for Liberal Arts Majors), it usually involves the concepts of specific heat and various temperature scales. Seldom are the first and second laws of thermodynamics taught in detail. In this article, we look at a means to obtain real-time data that will lead to clarifying the first law.

© 2011 American Association of Physics Teachers

Article Outline

  1. Opening discussion of the investigation

KEYWORDS and PACS

Keywords

physics education, specific heat, student experiments

PACS

  • 01.50.Pa

    Laboratory experiments and apparatus

  • 05.70.Ce

    Thermodynamic functions and equations of state

PUBLICATION DATA

ISSN

0031-921X (print)  

Publisher

$abstract.society.value is a Member of CrossRef American Association of Physics Teachers

ARTICLE DATA

Digital Object Identifier
http://dx.doi.org/10.1119/1.3661107

Figures (click on thumbnails to view enlargements)

FIG.1a
Large mass ready to drop.

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FIG.1b
Large mass caught on bounce.

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FIG.2
Temperature-vs-time plots of impacts of 1.0-kg mass on 0.0176-kg mass of Silly Putty.

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