[albert611]

Hi, when you're measuring temperature difference when hot and cold water are mixed together, is it the difference between initial temperature and the max, or initial and final temperature? Also, does 2 j/k for the heat capacity of styrofoam cups sound correct? Thanks for your *delete me*

[Donaldson Tan]

I don't understand what you are talking about. I can't relate it to what I know in carrying out experiments to determine the heat of neutralisation. The initial temperature is taken as the average temperature of the 2 solutions (acid and alkali, same volume each), since the 2 solutions are effectively water (being the major component). In this way, you will know the initial temperature of the acid-alkali mixture just before the reaction start.

You only record the reading for the highest temperature achieved throughout the reaction phase. You substract the initial temperature from this value to calculate the temperature difference.

I'm not too sure abt 2j/K for the foam cup. I don't have any table of physical constants and data to refer to. Hope this'll be helpful!