Latent heat of vaporisation
In this activity, students watch a teacher demonstration, and the results will allow an estimate of the latent heat of vaporisation of water to be made.
Heat and latent heat
In this video, Dr Eric Scharpf, an energy management specialist, explains the physics meaning of the term ‘heat’, which differs from the general usage of this term. He then defines the term ‘latent heat’ and gives examples of its everyday use in household devices such as heat pumps and refrigerators.
By the end of this activity, students should be able to:
recognise some of the hazards present when experimenting with steam
gain an understanding of the huge amount of energy need to convert water at 100°C into steam at the same temperature
apply the law of energy conservation to trace the conversion of electrical energy into heat energy
calculate a value for the latent heat of vaporisation of water.
Download the Word file (see link below) for:
introduction/background notes
what you need
what to do.
