Charles’ Law and Absolute Zero

Date of experiment November 4, 2010 Date submitted November 11, 2010 Introduction As per Charles lawfulness, at that place is a linear relationship amongst the temperature and volume of a fluff. Charles ascertained that -273C is the point at which a throttle has no volume. Since thats as cold as he thought things could ever get, that originated the idea of unattackable nought. In this experiment, Charles Law was applied and made into data to determine an observational harbor for Absolute Zero. To do so, a fixed amount of gas was confined in a minute, uniform sample tube.The temperature of the gas was changed, by being placed in irrigate. The expected result is that as the temperature of the gas gets cooler (decreases), the volume of gas will decrease. Procedure A 400mL beaker was fill with tap water and place on a hot base until the thermometer read 55C. Then a sample tube fill with two mercury plugs was obtained from the instructor. With a ruler, the distance between th e two mercury plugs was recorded. Using small rubber bands, the sample tube was strapped to the ruler, which was consequently wedded to the bottom of thermometer.A cork was attached onto the top of the thermometer, and then clamped in the beaker of pre-heated water. The sign temperature and distance between each plug in the pre-heated water were then recorded. Ice was added and stirred every so often to cool the temperature of the water. When the beaker was acquittance to overflow, small amounts of the water were removed by a pipet. The temperature and distance between each plug were then recorded every two minutes. 8 sets of temperatures were recorded when the goal temperature of 0. C was achieved. Data 1) Temperature and Distance Between atomic number 80 Plugs Every 2mins Time (minutes) Temperature of water (C) Distance between plugs (mm) 0 (Plugs come on of water) 49. 8 60. 2 (in room temp) 2 (Plugs in water) 46. 3 63. 8 4 42. 2 63. 3 6 39. 3 62. 2 8 24. 9 60. 0 10 19. 1 5 8. 6 12 7. 8 56. 6 14 1. 9 55. 1 16 0. 1 54. 4 18 0. 1 54. 4 Calculations 1) Line of best fit y=0. 1981x+54. 752 Slope (m) 0. 198 mm/C Y-Intercept (b) 54. 8 mm 2) Absolute zero (V=0) -276. 8C 3) % ErrorExcepted value -273C Discussion My results argue that as the temperature of the water decreased, the distance between the two mercury plugs decreased. This supports Charles Law which states . When creating my graph, I did non include the first initial temperature and length recordings. The mend was not anywhere near the others, and would pass thrown off the slope. My value for absolute zero was fairly close to the excepted -273C. There was a small difference of 3. 8C between the two values, with a pct error or 1. 4%.My results were expected because I was obviously not going to get the perfect -273C absolute zero value, out-of-pocket to experimental error. Sources of experimental error that could occur are if the initial temperature of the water was over 55C and if the mercury plu gs were not respectabley submersed in the water. If the water was over 55C, then the ruler would have deformed from melting. This would make the rulers readings unreliable. If the mercury plugs were not fully submerged in the water then they would not get the full effect of temperature change.