LAB (JANUARY 18TH CLASS)

HEAT OF COMBUSTION OF CANDLE (PARAFFIN) WAX

Today we did a lab with a candle, water, and an empty pop can!

Here's what we did:
- We setup a lab stand and the wire mesh
- We measured 150 mL of cold water and poured it into the metal can
- We recorded the temperature of the water
- And then recorded the mass of the candle before we lit it
- We then placed the candle under teh can and carefully lit it
- We let the candle burn for approximately 5 minutes
- Then we recorded the new temperature of the water
- And recordede the new mass of the candle, to see how much was burnt
- Then the best part WE CLEANED UP! ;)

Some things we had to find out:
- How much Paraffix wax was burnt during the whole experiment (which you could find by taking your original mass, and minus the final mass)
- How many moles of paraffix wax were reacted during the experiment
- How many joules of energy the water gained
- The molar heat of combustion (joules/moles) of Praffin wax
- The accepted value for the molar heart of combustion of Paraffin wax is appx. -14 500 kJ/mol, with this we had to find our percent error
- Possible sources of error (distance of can from candle, original temp of water, sloppy measuring, water volume, etc.)


(queen's post)