Immersion Heater Experiment

In this experiment, immersion heater is used to heat up water in a paper cup and the temperature changes were measured and recorded.

The actual output of the immersion heater is 297 Watts, which was measured using the Wattmeter. If the heater is run for twenty seaconds (which is the case in the experiment), the heat generated is 5940J. This is calculated by multiplying the heat output with the amount of time the heater run. 

This is the heat vs. temperature graph with the heat calculated from the temperatures recorded.

The relationship between the heat and temperature is linear. The slope of the graph is the heat capacity of water. If the mass of water is cut by half, the slope will stay around the same even though the mass is part of the calculation of the slope. Thus, the heat capacity (slope) is independent of the mass.

The equation is