Sunday, July 16, 2017

homework - Metal vs. Styrofoam cup calorimeter?


For a metal cup as opposed to a styrofoam cup calorimeter, do you expect the enthalpy of the reaction to be higher, lower, or the same?


I think the enthalpy of the reaction would be the same in the sytrofoam cup as the metal cup because enthalpy is a state function? So if the same products are yielded at the end along with the same reactants being used in the beginning, they'll have the same enthalpy because it doesn't matter HOW you got that enthalpy, just the final result? That's my reasoning but I'm not sure.


So does it matter that metal cup will conduct heat better because if they're using the same reactants it'll give you the same change as a styrofoam cup?




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