Specific Latent Heat

Lab Brief #3

🎯 Your mission

Run the experiment. Find out what really happens.

⚡ The twist

Nature loves to surprise the careful watcher.

What you'll learn

Changing state takes energy without any temperature change, because the energy goes into breaking bonds rather than speeding particles up. Specific latent heat of fusion is the energy per kilogram to melt; of vaporisation, to boil. Water's latent heat of vaporisation is very large.

Key words

latent heat
Energy absorbed or released during a change of state at constant temperature.
fusion
The change of state from solid to liquid; melting.

Make a hypothesis first

Before you start: write down what you think will happen, and why.

Say your guess out loud — then find out if you were right.

Get ready

🧰 What you need

crushed ice
immersion heater
beaker
thermometer
stopwatch
balance

Get ready

⚠️ Safety first

Steam scalds worse than boiling water — keep face away from the beaker mouth.
Never run the heater in air.

Step 1 of 4 · Read

Think about what you just learned: say what "latent heat" and "fusion" mean in your own words before you start.

Step 2 of 4 · Do

Heat crushed ice steadily with an immersion heater, recording temperature every 30 s from below zero through melting to boiling. Plot the heating curve and identify the two flat sections as the state changes.

Step 3 of 4 · Observe

Record what actually happened, including anything that did not match what you expected.

Step 4 of 4 · Record

Write a conclusion that answers the question this lesson opened with, and state your uncertainty.

Question 1 of 2

During melting, the temperature of the mixture:

How sure are you?😐 maybe

Question 2 of 2

Energy supplied during a change of state goes into:

How sure are you?😐 maybe

Mind = blown

🔬 The more you look, the more nature shows you.

Nice work!

You got 0 of 2 right.

Next: The Particle Model and Gas Pressure All lessons

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✨ More to explore

🌍 Where you see this in real life: This shows up in your everyday life more than you'd think.

🏆 Stretch challenge (try it this week): Try one experiment in real life this week — even a tiny one.

👨‍👩‍👧 For the dinner table: “What's the most surprising thing you learned today?”

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