Question

What are calorimeters made of and why?

Answer 1

Calorimeters are made of thin sheet of copper.

Explanation:

Calorimeters are made of thin sheet of copper.

For a calorimeter to be effective it must have two properties.

(1) Although any object will use or loose some heat in experiments, a calorimeter should not absorb / loose too much of heat, otherwise it would affect the readings and final results. As copper has a very low specific heat. Though there are substances like sand, mercury, gold and platinum, which have lower specific heat, obviously they cannot be used for calorimeter as first two are not metals and other too very costly. Some of the other metals also cannot be used as they corrode faster.

(2) The heat should be transmitted quickly enough so that heat loss to environment is minimized. This is also the reason that calorimeters are properly insulated.