determining the heat of combustion

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daisy007
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determining the heat of combustion

Post by daisy007 »

We did an experiment where we used energy from burning paraffin wax to heat a known volume of water. We used the equation q = - cp(water) x m(water) x ∆T (water)
to calculate the amount of heat transfered to water. The mass of fuel burned was then taken into account to calculate the heat per gram of fuel consumed in the combustion. (∆Hc = Q/m)

The expected value is -41.5 kJ/g, but the result I got is much higher, even though it would be logical for it to be less than the expected value because of heat losses.

I was wondering if this is because I didn't take into consideration the can in which the water was heated?
How could I incorporate the can in the equation q = - cp x m x ∆T to get a more accurate result?

Thank you for helping
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