Question

This question is about calorimeter constant. Does the lower the calorimeter constant mean the better the heat retainment?

I have created a lab to test what calorimeter top has the best heat retainment, in order to determine this I added hot water to cold water and measured the temperature every 30 seconds upto 180 seconds? How I can use this data and the varying temperatures to calculate the calorimeter constant?

Answer 1

Generally, yes.

Explanation:

The "calorimeter constant" is just the specific heat of the calorimeter and its thermal conductivity. An "ideal" calorimeter would have a very low specific heat and zero thermal conductivity because the point is to conserve energy within the system.

One procedure to do this experimentally is detailed here:
https://sciencing.com/determine-calorimeter-constant-8018985.html

The calculations are explained here:
http://www.chemteam.info/Thermochem/Calculate-a-Calorimeter-Constant.html