| Metal samples used for the determination of specific heat values in introductory chemistry laboratory courses generally exhibit a marked change in appearance through repeated usage, suggesting that oxidation is likely occurring on the metals' surface. The presence of the oxide impurity may result in significant errors in the determination of an accurate specific heat value. To mitigate this effect, metals may be rinsed with an acid followed by deionized water before drying.;This project describes the modeling of the experimental error in the determination of the specific heat for three metals using three different treatments/rinses. Using the trial number to represent time intervals, two longitudinal models are constructed and compared. A general, three-factor linear model is presented which presents the trial number as a factor. All models presented are statistically valid representations of the data and indicate that the various factors presented do have an effect on the experimental error. |
