Question

what effect will a 0.20 g error (reading is 0.20g lower than the actual value) in reading the amount of Cu in this calorimetry experiment have on determining the specific heat?

Answer 1

SOLUTION:

We know that, Specific heat of Cu is given by:

Where, is heat, is mass of copper and is change in temperature.

For a division given by,

is error in A and is error in B.

Error in the final answer will be:

Assuming that there is zero error in hea and change in temperature, error in specific heat capacity of copper will be:

Given,

Therefore, error in specific heat capacity of copper will be:

That is we will get a value of specific heat capacity of copper 0.2 greater than actual value.

Note: The units are important. This is the case, if units of C is J/g^oC. If, J/kg^oC, then error in mass should be taken in kg, that is 0.0002.