Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

I have a question
In the experiment of measuring the specific heat of oil and water, oil doesn’t heat up much faster than water even though its specific heat is much lower than water.
Can we explain this by viscosity or thermal conductivity of oil?
Or what?

Hi,

I'm assuming that you're working on the project described here:

https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... er#summary

In this project you use a calorimeter with an electric heater to measure the specific heat of water or other liquids like vegetable oil. Equation 3 in the project background section shows how electrical energy (current, voltage and time) applied to the heater is related to specific heat, mass and temperature change.

If you kept the mass of water and oil, the temperature change, and the voltage and current the same in both of your experiments, then time required to heat the liquids would differ due to the specific heats of water and oil. Vegetable oil has a lower specific heat than water so less time is required to heat the oil to the same temperature change.

Were your experimental conditions the same for your water and oil measurements? One explanation for your similar heating times might be lower current or voltage, or a larger temperature change in the oil experiment.

I hope this helps. Please post again if you have more questions.

A. Norman

Could you share your procedure with us? I'll try to see if there are any mistakes. Theoretically, oil is supposed to heat up much faster than water.