ExpertEasy1 markMultiple Choice
AQA GCSE · Question 08.1 · Energy
A student carried out an experiment to determine the specific heat capacity of water. Figure 12 shows the equipment the student used to heat the water.
Why did the student insulate the beaker of water?
A student carried out an experiment to determine the specific heat capacity of water. Figure 12 shows the equipment the student used to heat the water.
Why did the student insulate the beaker of water?
Answer options:
A.
To increase energy transfer to the surroundings.
B.
To reduce energy transfer to the surroundings.
C.
To stop energy transfer to the surroundings.
How to approach this question
1. Think about the purpose of the experiment: to measure the energy needed to heat the *water*.
2. Consider what insulation does. Does it help heat escape or does it keep heat in?
3. The "surroundings" refers to the air and table around the beaker.
4. If heat escapes to the surroundings, it means the joulemeter reading will be higher than the energy that actually went into raising the water's temperature. How does insulation help with this problem?
Full Answer
B.To reduce energy transfer to the surroundings.✓ Correct
To reduce energy transfer to the surroundings.
In this experiment, a heater transfers electrical energy into thermal energy. The aim is to measure how much energy is required to raise the temperature of a known mass of water by a certain amount.
A major source of error is that not all the thermal energy from the heater goes into the water. Some of it will be transferred to the beaker itself, and a significant amount can be lost to the cooler surrounding air through conduction, convection, and radiation.
By insulating the beaker (e.g., with a layer of foam or cotton wool), the rate of this heat loss is significantly reduced. This ensures that most of the energy measured by the joulemeter is actually used to heat the water, leading to a more accurate result for the specific heat capacity.
Common mistakes
✗ Choosing "increase" energy transfer - this is the opposite of what insulation does.
✗ Choosing "stop" energy transfer - this is an absolute statement. No insulation is perfect; it can only reduce the rate of transfer.
Practice the full AQA GCSE Physics Foundation Tier Paper 1
36 questions · hints · full answers · grading
More questions from this exam
Q01.1Figure 1 shows water being heated. Eventually the water changed into steam.
Complete the sentenc...EasyQ01.2Figure 2 shows how the temperature of the water varied with time.
What is the name of the proces...EasyQ01.3A mass of 0.063 kg of water was turned into steam.
The specific latent heat of vaporisation of wa...EasyQ01.4The mass of the steam was 0.063 kg.
The volume of the steam was 0.105 m³.
Calculate the density o...MediumQ02.1Polonium-210 (²¹⁰₈₄Po) is a radioactive isotope that decays by emitting alpha radiation.
Which is...Easy