Thermal equilibrium

Place a small beaker (or conical flask with rubber stopper) of hot water immersed in a beaker of cold water

Determine the mass of the water in each beaker (using electronic scales)

Use two Vernier temperature probes to track the temperature of both beakers over a 20 minute time period

Also note the ambient room temperature

Before the experiment:

What do you expect to happen to the temperature of both beakers (estimate any 'final' temperatures of the two using the masses and the above equation)

After the experiment

Questions

1. Compare your expected final temperatures with actual final temperatures. Try to account for your results

2. Assuming that the beakers were a closed system, calculate the expected final temperature

3. In this experiment, the mass of the hot water was significantly less than the cold. Do you think this had a bearing on the final outcome? Consider the two curves in the graph, do they change at the same rate. Explain

4. If the experiment was left to run long enough, what do you think the final temperatures would be? Use you data to make this prediction.

Conclusion

Make a concluding statement that links your results to the content under study.