What are the possible sources of error in a calorimetry experiment?
Category:
science
chemistry
Sources of error for this lab include the calorimeter's insulation, the incomplete combustion of the paraffin, and the insulation of the combustion of paraffin.
Subsequently, one may also ask, what are the possible sources of error in a bomb calorimetry experiment?
Sources of error include the percent error in water measurement and incomplete vaporization of the nichrome wire. The internal volume of the Parr-bomb was measured to be 341mL.
Also, what is the most important source of error in these calorimeter experiments?
More reliable results can be obtained by repeating the experiment many times. The biggest source of error in calorimetry is usually unwanted heat loss to the surroundings. This can be reduced by insulating the sides of the calorimeter and adding a lid.
Melting point results from a given set of trials is an example of the latter.
- Blunders (mistakes).
- Human error.
- Observing the system may cause errors.
- Errors due to external influences.
- Not all measurements have well-defined values.
- Sampling.