How can we investigate specific heat capacity?
1)To investigate a solid material, you'll need a block of the material with two holes in it
2)measure the mass of the block and wrap an insulating material around it to reduce the energy transferred from the materials to the surroundings. insert thermometer and a heater
3)Measure the initial temperature of the block and set the potential difference of the power supply to be 10v. turn the power supply and start a stop watch
4)When you turn on the power the current in the circuit does work on the heater, transferring energy electrically from the power supply to the heater thermal energy store.
5)As the block heats up, take the readings of the temperature and current every minute for 10min. you should find that the current through the circuit doesn't change as the block heats up
6)When you've collected enough readings , turn off the power supply using your measurement of the current and potential difference of the power supply you can calculate the power supplied to the heater using p=vi
7)You can repeat this experiment with different materials to see how their heat capacity compares e.g for a liquid just placed to the heater and thermometer in an insulated beaker filled with a known mass of the liquid.