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Which Heats Up Faster; Sand or Water?

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Question: Which heats up faster: sand or water?

Hypothesis: Sand heats up faster than water because it has a lower specific heat. Water has a specific heat, which requires one calorie of energy to raise the temperature of one gram of water by one degree Celsius. Sand has a lower specific heat. It takes .19 calories per gram to raise the temperature of the sand by 1 degree Celsius. Sand requires fewer calories to raise its temperature one degree Celsius and that’s why it heats up faster than water.

Experiment: See lab sheet. In this experiment there was no control. The independent variables in this experiment are the time, and the amount of sand and water put into the cans. The dependent variable is the degrees (in Celsius) that …show more content…

Twenty minutes and the temperature was at 30 ° C. After twenty-five minutes it was at 29 ° C. Thirty minutes and the temperature was still at 29 ° C. The experimenter noticed with the lamp on for thirty minutes the temperature overall increased 17°. With the lamp off for thirty minutes the temperature overall decreased 7°. The experimenter realized that it this proves sand heats up at a more rapid pace than water. After all the temperatures were recorded the experimenter unplugged the lamp. Removed thermometers from all the cans, carefully wiped and placed each can in the appropriate tray. The experimenter then emptied the sand into the bag of sand, and emptied the water into the sink and put the can in the tray marked empty water cans. Finally the experimenter took the lamp back to where it was found.

Conclusion: Sand heats up faster than water because it has a lower specific heat. Water has a specific heat, which requires one calorie of energy to raise the temperature of one gram of water by one degree Celsius. Sand has a lower specific heat. It takes .19 calories per gram to raise the temperature of the sand by 1 degree Celsius. Sand requires fewer calories to raise its temperature one degree Celsius and that’s why it heats up faster than water. Sand did heat up much faster than water during this experiment. This happened because of the specific heat of the sand caused it to start heating up rapidly under the lamp as the time went

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