Lab Design Thermodynamics

LEARNING GOALS OF THIS LAB:

Learn to evaluate how assumptions and uncertainties affect the value of a
physical quantity to be determined and to choose experimental procedures
least affected by assumptions and uncertainties.
Learn to judge if a physical quantity determined by two different experimental
methods are the same or different.
Speciic hea! o "n#no$n ob%ec!
Two independent experiments to determine the specific heat of the given object. The
material of which the object is made is not known.
E&perimen!
Equipment: You have access to the following equipment water! ice! container for
water! hot plate! "tyrofoam container with a cover or a calorimeter! weighing balance!
and a digital thermometer.
a# $irst! recall why it is important to design two experiments to determine a
quantity.
b# %lay with the equipment to find how you can use it to achieve the goal of the
experiment. &evise as many designs as possible. 'rite brief outlines for each
design. 'orking with your lab partners! choose the best two designs. (ndicate
the criteria that you used to decide which designs were the )best*. "how it to
your lab instructor.
c# 'rite a verbal description and draw a labeled sketch of the design you
choose. (nclude the quantities you will measure.
d# +onstruct the mathematical procedure you will use.
e# List all assumptions you make in your design. &ecide which of the
assumptions affects your results most. Explain how the outcome of the
experiment depends on this assumption! i.e. if the assumption increases or
decreases your result.
f# &esign an additional experiment to determine whether the main assumption is
valid in your experiment. ,uantitatively estimate the effect of this assumption
on the value of your measurement and compare it with the instrumental
uncertainty -what will happen to your measurements if the assumption is not
valid#.
g# List sources of experimental uncertainty. &ecide which the largest source of
uncertainty is. .se the weakest link rule to estimate the uncertainty in your
result. /ow would you minimi0e uncertainties1
h# %erform the experiment. 2ake sure you take steps to minimi0e experimental
uncertainties and the effect of the assumptions. 3ecord your measurements in
an appropriate format.
i# +alculate the specific heat! based on your procedure and measurements.
(nclude the experimental uncertainty in each value of specific heat that you
determine.
j# 4fter you have done both experiments! compare the two outcomes. &iscuss if
they are within your experimental uncertainty of each other. (f not! specifically
explain what might have gone wrong 5 perhaps one of your assumptions was
not valid. (f your experiments are not close to each other within experimental
uncertainty! perform the experiment again taking steps to improve your
design. $or example! you could take all measurements quickly so that hot
objects do not cool off! or you could improve the thermal insulation of your
calorimeter.
II' Ana(ysis
a# &iscuss in your group how a particular value of the specific heat of water might
have contributed to the evolution of life on Earth.
b# Think of the situation when assumptions such as no friction! no air resistance!
no thermal energy loss etc. are not valid.
III' Ra$ Da!a'
This particular discovery is an example of how those who deserve an award do not
always get it. 3ead the following passage focusing your attention on the scientific
procedures and scientific abilities.
The discovery of pulsars 5rotating neutron stars that generate regular pulses of
radiation at their spin rate6 was fortuitous. 4 group of astrophysicists from
+ambridge .niversity lead by 4nthony /ewish was looking for quasars.
$or that purpose the research group designed a radio6telescope that was built on the
flat fields surrounding +ambridge in central England. This telescope did not look like
the visible light refractors! which the average person identifies with the word
7telescope7! but instead consisted of over a thousand posts strung with more than
8999 dipoles between them! and up to :89 miles of wire to connect the whole. The
researchers with the help of university students built the apparatus themselves! and it
took them two years to finish the work.
The astrophysicists were in search of scintillation sources of electromagnetic
radiation in the radio frequency range. "cintillation is the apparent fluctuation in
intensity of electromagnetic emissions! that is! the apparent ;twinkling; of
electromagnetic sources. 2ost of the sources of radio emissions of the universe are
large! such as galaxies or extended regions of gases and dust where new stars are
forming. They knew that twinkling of small compact sources is much stronger than
scintillation of extended sources. /ence! quasars being smaller than galaxies should
scintillate more. 3adio sources that scintillated a lot were very good candidates for
quasars.
Two months after the beginning of the experiment! <ell found something strange on
the records! a signal that did not resemble other scintillating sources. 4fter more
careful analysis of the observations! <ell could determine that the odd source emitted
short pulses with a perfect period of ::=> seconds. "uch period is too brief for
something as big as a start. /ewish believed the pulses to be man6made
interference! as with a gap so regular they seemed too precise to be natural.
The researchers considered a variety of possible explanations for the curious
phenomenon! such as being a signal reflect from the 2oon or emitted by an artificial
satellite in an unusual orbit. They ruled out potential sources of man6made
interference one6by6one. (t could be that the mysterious signal was created by the
telescope itself. /owever another group of researchers working with a different
telescope managed to pick6up the same signals! removing instrument malfunction as
the possible source of the surprising emission.
<ell continued with the analysis of the data produced by the telescope and found
three other similar pulsating radio sources at very distant points in the sky. These
findings excluded the explanation of alien civili0ations as it was very unlikely that
different groups of extraterrestrial intelligent creatures extremely far from each other
were choosing a similar frequency to send signals to the same planet! the Earth. (t
seemed highly improbable that the signals were generated by intelligent beings?
however nobody in the +avendish Laboratory at +ambridge .niversity had any other
explanation.
/ewish and <ell wrote a paper describing the first pulsating source and submitted it
to the journal @ature! where it was published on $ebruary! :ABC. 4 few months later
after the publication of the findings! Thomas Dold! a professor at +ornell .niversity!
come out with a good explanation for the pulsed signals. Dold suggested that the
radio signals originated on the surface of very compact! exceedingly fast spinning
neutron stars. @eutrons starts continuously emit radio waves from two opposite
directions that usually are not aligned with the starEs rotation axis. 4s the star rotates
these radio signals are swept around the sky in a circle. 'hen the emitting 0ones of
the neutron stats point toward the Earth! we detect the radio signals. This is the
;lighthouse; explanation of the pulsars which Dold proposed.
.p to now &r. DoldEs explanation has not been disproved! and is unanimously
accepted by the scientific community because of additional evidence and coherence
with current explanations of stellar evolution.
Ans$er !he o((o$ing )"es!ions $i!h !he e&perimen!'
:# (nitially what type of experiment -observation! testing or application# was
conducted by /ewish and <ell1 'hat were they trying to find1
8# /ow did the original experiment become an observation experiment1
># List all the explanations proposed.
F# 'hat experiments were designed to test each one of the explanations1 'hat
did the explanations predict for the outcome of the experiments1
G# /ow are explanations different from predictions1
B# 'hy did they need to conduct testing experiments1
H# 'hy did <ell and /ewish rule out most of the explanations1
C# 'hy did scientists accept DoldEs explanation1