There are a wide variety of practicals that can be done in a science lab where students can investigate the specific latent heat or specific heat capacity of an object.

Consider the following five experiments. Show which part of a heating curve they correspond to by annotating your graph (the first one has been done for you).

1. Heat up a metallic block (such as aluminium) using an electric heater. You can use this to determine the specific heat capacity of the metal.
2. Heat up water or oil in a beaker using an electric heater. You can use this to determine the specific heat capacity of the liquid.
3. Heat up water in a kettle that is on a balance and measuring the temperature change and mass change. If you find out the power of the kettle you can determine rough numbers for the specific heat capacity of water and the specific latent heat of vapourisation.
4. Heat a boiling tube of stearic acid in beaker of hot water, until the acid melts, recording the temperature as it melts. You can also do it in reverse where it cools – this experiment does not give a number for the latent heat, but the graph produced should replicate a typical cooling curve.
5. Heat a beaker full of ice and record its temperature using a thermometer probe and data logger.