The Boiling Temperature of Water!

Project #1507 on iSENSEProject.org

The Boiling Temperature of Water

The physical properties of a pure substance can be used to identify the substance and distinguish it from other pure substances.  Boiling temperature is one such physical property. This is the temperature at which a substance changes rapidly from its liquid state into a gas. Rapid formation of bubbles is evidence that the liquid is at its boiling temperature. In this experiment, students will study the boiling of water.

Guiding Question: Students will observe the boiling point of water in a particular time span.

In this assignment students will observe the boiling point of water, use a computer to measure temperature, analyze data with a graph to make conclusions about boiling, determine the boiling temperature of water, and finally students can apply the same concepts they learned with another type of liquid and determine their outcomes.

Materials:  Chromebook, Vernier computer interface, temperature probe, 250 mL beaker, ring stand, utility clamp, hot plate, water

Procedure:

Prepare the water sample by arranging a hot plate next to the base of a ring stand, fill a 250 mL beaker 2/3 full of hot tap water. Place the 250 mL beaker on the hot plate. Turn the hot plate on a temperature setting. Use a utility clamp to suspend the Vernier Temperature Probe on the ring stand. The tip of the probe should be 1-2 cm above the bottom of the beaker. Now connect the probe and click collect. When the water has started to boil or is bubbling for six minutes, you can click stop to end the data collection.

Students will look at the saved visualization to make sense of the assignments objective. Then students will be able to display their own graph and analyze the flat part of the curve to determine the boiling temperature of water. 

Students will then answer the following questions:

Describe your temperature vs. time graph?
What happened to the temperature of the water as it was heated prior to boiling?
What happened to the temperature of the water as it boiled?

Extensions:  Students can now choose another liquid and run the experiment and use the isenseproject to graph their results.

http://www.vernier.com/experiments/