--- title: "Heating experiments and Q = mcΔT" description: "Plan and carry out experiments to measure energy transferred during heating, including using the equation Q = mcΔT, recording temperature changes over time, and evaluating sources of error" canonical: https://lightmysky.com/learn/science/heating-experiments-and-q-mc-t-mt_DI1cyAyGyN source: https://lightmysky.com/learn/science/heating-experiments-and-q-mc-t-mt_DI1cyAyGyN.md retrieved: 2026-10-19 --- > **Agent view.** This is the Markdown twin of the page, for tools and assistants. > When to use this site, and the call that answers each job: https://lightmysky.com/agent-instructions.md > API description (OpenAPI 3.1): https://lightmysky.com/openapi.json · Authentication: https://lightmysky.com/auth.md > Pricing: https://lightmysky.com/pricing.md · Catalog: https://lightmysky.com/llms.txt · Full catalog: https://lightmysky.com/llms-full.txt > Every machine-readable file on this domain: https://lightmysky.com/.well-known/ai-catalog.json > Ask for Markdown with `Accept: text/markdown`, a `.md` address, or `?mode=agent`. # Heating experiments and Q = mcΔT Plan and carry out experiments to measure energy transferred during heating, including using the equation Q = mcΔT, recording temperature changes over time, and evaluating sources of error Subject: Science · Area: Energy · Ages 12 to 13 Page: https://lightmysky.com/learn/science/heating-experiments-and-q-mc-t-mt_DI1cyAyGyN ## Ready when they can - Uses a thermometer and stopwatch to record temperature change over time in a heating experiment - Applies Q = mcΔT to calculate the energy transferred to a substance being heated - Identifies sources of energy loss in a heating experiment (e.g. heat to surroundings) and suggests improvements - Plots a temperature-time graph and identifies the temperature rise rate from its gradient ## Lesson: Heating experiments and Q = mcΔT In a heating experiment, you measure how hot something gets as you add energy to it. You need a thermometer to read the temperature, and a stopwatch to time how long you have been heating. The energy transferred follows a tidy rule: Q = mcΔT. Here Q is the energy in joules, m is the mass in kilograms, ΔT is the temperature change, and c is the specific heat capacity. *(drawing: Each minute you heat the water, the temperature climbs a little higher.)* The specific heat capacity, c, tells you how much energy it takes to heat 1 kg of a material by 1°C. It is a property of the material itself, and you look it up in a table. Water has one of the largest values of any common substance, about 4200 J/kg°C, so water soaks up a lot of energy before its temperature climbs much. That is one reason the sea warms up and cools down so slowly. **Example.** Say you heat 0.2 kg of water and its temperature rises from 20°C to 40°C. Water has a specific heat capacity of 4200 J/kg°C, so ΔT = 20°C. Using Q = mcΔT: Q = 0.2 x 4200 x 20 = 16,800 J of energy transferred. Not all your energy heats the water. Some escapes into the air, the beaker, or the surroundings, so the energy you work out from Q = mcΔT is usually less than the energy you supplied. You can cut this loss by using a lid, wrapping the beaker in insulation, or timing your heating carefully. Plotting temperature against time turns your readings into a picture. The steepness of the line, its gradient, tells you how fast the temperature rose. If the temperature climbs steadily from 15°C to 45°C in 6 minutes, the gradient is 30 ÷ 6 = 5°C per minute. A steeper line means the water warmed faster. **Recap.** Record temperature over time, use Q = mcΔT to work out the energy transferred, read the rise rate from the gradient of your graph, and watch out for heat lost to the surroundings. *Adapted from OpenStax College Physics (CC-BY 4.0), openstax.org* · [license](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) ## Practice 14 questions on this page, each with its working shown. ## Needs first - [Efficiency, Sankey diagrams, and work done](https://lightmysky.com/learn/science/efficiency-sankey-diagrams-and-work-done-mt_JyfLtl_nhw) ## Opens up - [Specific Heat Capacity as a Material Property](https://lightmysky.com/learn/science/specific-heat-capacity-as-a-material-property-mt_mXC9IKom3P)