A redetermination of the specific heat of water between 10ºC and 20ºC

Briscoe, Frederick John (1912). A redetermination of the specific heat of water between 10ºC and 20ºC. University of Birmingham. M.Sc.

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Abstract

The first experiment which showed a quantitative relation between work and heat was described by Count Rumford in 1798. Since this time a large number of determinations of the “Mechanical Equivalent of Heat” have been made. Those made before the time of Joule need not be mentioned here, as in none of them were results of any reliability obtained. The accurate evaluation of the Equivalent dates from the researches of Joule, whose methods of experiment have been used in all the later work on the subject. Joule’s first experiments were a result of his discovery of the Law of Electrical Heating and were made by the electrical heating of water; but the large differences between the results given by this method and those obtained by the more direct method of frictional heating, led him to believe that the absolute values of the Electrical Standards were not sufficiently well known. He therefore abandoned the electrical method and obtained his final results by frictional heating.

Type of Work:

Thesis (Masters by Research > M.Sc.)

Award Type:

Masters by Research > M.Sc.

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