Question

The calorimeter is commonly made up of……..because it has…….

• A. copper(Cu)
• B. a very low specific heat capacity

Answer 1

Calorimeter: A calorimeter is a device for measuring the heat developed during a mechanical, electrical, or chemical reaction and for calculating the heat capacity of materials.

• As we can see it is a calorimeter which is an isolated system( heat exchange will not take place from the outer environment) that is covered with an insulating jacket which is normally made up of wood, wool, etc. so that the exchange of heat can be restricted inside.
• Inside this isolated covering, there is a chamber present that is made up of copper and a stirrer which is also made of copper only because copper has a very low specific heat capacity (specific heat capacity is the amount of heat to be supplied or taken out of a unit mass of a system in order to increase or decreases its temperature to one degree in a thermodynamic process) which means it needs a very low amount of heat to reach thermal equilibrium and it is necessary because if we use any other metal which has a very high specific heat capacity, the calculation of heat in a reaction which is going to take place in this calorimeter will be not accurate.
• So, to prevent the error in the calculation of heat used by reactions taking place inside a chamber we use copper metal as a wall of the container and as a stirrer to mix heat evenly which has a very low specific heat capacity.

Therefore, the calorimeter is commonly made up of copper(Cu) because it has a very low specific heat capacity.