An experiment compares heat capacity of insulated cups, indicating practical applications in thermodynamics education.
The difficulties that chemistry students have with understanding the basic concepts of thermodynamics have been well documented over the years. Many of the issues stem from a deep misunderstanding of the concepts of heat. Students are slow to accept that it is an energy transfer and not a substance. Furthermore, the students have difficulty relating to the concepts of calorimetry. This paper details a simple experiment that demonstrates the utility of calorimetry in daily life and has the student determine if one insulated cup is better than another. The heat capacities of an Ozark Trail insulated cup and a Yeti insulated cup are determined and compared.
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L. Dalila Mathews (2018) studied this question.
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