4-2: Heating and Cooling curves

In this lab, we experimented and observed the changes in the energy of the lauric acid as it changes from one phase to another.

Step 1) Measure 5 grams of the lauric acid and put it into a test tube.

Step 2) You then begin heating the test tube of this substance in a beaker of hot water and record the temperature every 25 seconds with the thermometer stirring the luric acid.

Step 3) Then, you repeat this process in a container full of ice and recording that data every 25 seconds.

Step 4) After all this is finished, we graph our data and begin to observe the curves of those two experiments.

We found that the melting point of the lauric acid was about 50 to 51 degrees celcius and the freezing point was about 43 degrees celcius. These temperatures are close but arent the same like they should be.melting The melting point is going from a solid to a liquid, and the freezing point is just the opposite process, going from a liquid to a solid. These temperatures should be the same because they both involve the same amount of energy as it goes from one state to the other. They're two phases that just have different direction of the flow of energy

Kinetic energy is the energy in a substance due to it's particle movements. In my heating curves graph it is when the curve is increasing and in my cooling graph the curve is decreasing. Potential energy is the energy that is stored in a substance. My potential energy within the luric acid shows in my heating graph as an increasing curve and is a decreasing curve in my cooling graph.

Enrichment:

Lauric acids actual melting point is 44 degrees celsius. I think I was too high because my data could of been an error in recording temperatures or the timing in taking the temperatures.

Lauric acid is used in many oils, humans milk, cows milk, and goats milk. The chemical formula for lauric acid is C 12 H 24 O 2 and the structure is polar carboxylic acid head.