Question

The Electrical Equivalent of Heat:

Discuss three possible sources of error in this experiment. Which of these errors would you expect to be most significant? Why?

Answer 1

1. Internal resistance of Power supply, As the power source is not Ideal Itself hence there will be some unaccounted energy loss.

2. The water should always cover the entire brass coil, As the stirring is not proper the uneven rise in temperature can lead to error in our experiment.

3. Device limitation error. For example, to record time, the clock has to be accurate and also our reaction time must be synchronous with the thermometer. ii.) Least count error

All the previous three error can reduced by increasing number of trials.

4. Outside temperature, I believe this is the most significant error as the temperature outside is higher, it gives a heat transfer/gradient from calorimeter to the atmosphere. This unaccounted energy exchange puts restriction on our calculation to have accordance with energy conservation principle.