Patrick Bateman 152-L16 Chenxi Wang

Experiment 1: Latent Heat of Liquid Nitrogen

Abstract: The purpose of the experiment was to measure the latent heat of vaporization for liquid nitrogen and compare it to the known value. In the process the student will develop an understanding for vaporization and how the added resistor accelerates the process of vaporization. In-Lab Questions: 1. It wasnt very important to carry out both parts of the experiment with the liquid nitrogen starting at about the same level in the cup because we just needed the liquid nitrogen to be the exact mass we want, not caring about the same level every time. As long as the liquid nitrogen was the exact mass then we could record accurate data. 2. If a few drops of cologne evaporate leaving the skin cool, this phenomenon is called evaporative cooling. The process of evaporation has a specific heat of evaporation, so the ethyl alcohol absorbs some of the heat from your hand which gives it a brief cool sensation. Questions: 1. A phase change is the transition between a solid, liquid, or gas for a single substance. Latent heat is the heat gained or lost by a substance to complete or while it is undergoing a phase change. The commonly accepted value of the latent heat of vaporization of LN2 is 199.2 J/g. 2. Data and calculations are on other sheet. The rate of evaporation of liquid nitrogen seems to be linear and constant as supported by calculations. 3. The experimental value of L turned out to be 202.22 J/g in comparison to 199.2 J/g. This led to a percent error of 1.52 %. The calculated standard deviation came out to 105.32 J/g. 4. a) 250 J/g * 5 g = 1250 J of energy needed to evaporate 5 grams b) 250 J/g * 5 g = 1250 J then 1250 J/50 watts = 25 seconds to evaporate 5. L = (VI)/(dmon/dt dmoff/dt). The equation for latent heat of vaporization shows that both the rate of evaporation with the resistor and without the resistor is needed for the experiment. Therefore both rates of evaporation are needed. 6. The balance did not need to be calibrated to zero. This is because the balance was only used to indicate when the liquid nitrogen had lost five grams of mass. Because this was the balances only purpose, the initial mass of the liquid nitrogen was not needed to be accurate.

7. A burn caused by steam at 100 C will do much more damage than water at 100 C because water absorbs a great deal of extra heat before it turns to steam. So when steam condenses it re-releases this heat, steam a little above 100 C holds much more energy than water a little below 100 C. 8. a) Between t1 and t2 there was a phase change from liquid water to gas. b) The temperature of water between t1 and t2 was 100 C because thats where the phase change occurs and waters heat of evaporation is 100 C. c) After t2, the phase of water is still a gas but the temperature of the gas is heating up. Conclusion The experiment in the end was fairly successful. The latent heat of vaporization for liquid nitrogen yielded an experimental value of 202.22 J/g. This compared nicely with the accepted value of 200 J/g, generating only an 1.5% error. Also, the value of uncertainty also allowed the experimental value to land in the range of the theoretical value. This shows that the experiment was successful. Sources of error include human error when determining if five grams of liquid nitrogen had been lost and hitting the timer. The experiment also assumes that the room temperature and temperature of the resistor remain constant.