Specific latent heat of fusion of ice

The first 200 words of this essay...

PHYSICS LAB REPORT

SPECIFIC LATENT HEAT OF FUSION OF ICE

AIM: To determine the specific latent heat of fusion of the ice provided by using a Calorimeter.

GENERAL BACKGROUND:

Latent heat of fusion:

If you have a glass of a cool drink, well supplied with ice, you can expect its temperature to drop until it is close to 0 ºC. You also can expect (and can easily check with a thermometer) that it will remain cold, regardless of the outside temperature, as long as there remains some unmelted ice in the drink. Only after all the ice has melted will the temperature of the drink begin to rise. Why is this?

When a solid substance changes from the solid phase to the liquid phase, energy must be supplied in order to overcome the molecular attractions between the constituent particles of the solid. This energy must be supplied externally, normally as heat, and does not bring about a change in temperature. We call this energy latent heat (the word "latent" means "invisible"). The latent heat is the energy released or absorbed during a change of state. With this in mind, we define the specific latent