October 7th

Experiment 2B Heating and Cooling Curves of a Pure Substance

Purpose
The purposes of this laboratory were:
- to investigate the cooling process for liquid paraffin wax; and
- to determine the freezing point of paraffin wax
Materials and Methods
The materials and methods used in this laboratory followed those in Experiment 2B located
on pages 13 through 17 of Essential Experiments for Chemistry by Duncan Morrison and
Darrel Scodellaro with the following exceptions:
-

paraffin wax was used instead of dodecanoic acid;

the heating process was not observed;
three trials were performed;
600 mL beakers were used, instead of the 400 mL beakers stated in the book; and
there were three people in each group, instead of two

Observations
Before the laboratory begun, paraffin wax was preheated in a beaker of water on a
hotplate. A table like the one on page 16 in Essential Experiments for Chemistry was prepared
beforehand. There were buret clamps, beakers, and ring stands distributed throughout the
room. Each group took one of each, and set up the materials as shown in the book.
The laboratory begun by positioning a beaker of room temperature water under the
buret clamp attached to a ring stand. A preheated test tube of liquid paraffin wax, with a
thermometer inside and a piece of cotton at the top, was placed in the buret clamp, and
lowered partially into the water, as seen in Figure 1. Each person was given a job of either
keeping track of time, checking the temperature, or making observations. The test tube of
paraffin wax had been preheated to about 70oC. Every thirty seconds, the temperature of the
wax was checked and written down. This was done for each trial.
The experiment went well, without any huge errors or major deviations between any of
the trials. The temperature of the wax started as dropping very fast, at 10 degrees in 30

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seconds, then slowing down, even having the temperature stay the same for 3 minutes in the
second trial.
A summary of all three trials:
At the start, at 70oC, the paraffin wax was fully liquid and clear. After thirty seconds,
the bottom of the test tube, the part submerged in water, was almost completely solidified,
white in colour. The middle of the test tube, the part right above the surface of the water,
seemed to be fogging up on the outside, becoming less clear, at 50 oC, shown in Figure 2. At
44-47oC, the surface of the wax seemed to begin solidifying, as shown in Figure 3. As time
progressed, the solidification continued up from the surface of the water, as shown in Figure 4.
At about 39-41oC, the paraffin wax became fully solid, like in Figure 5. At that point, the wax
was the same shade of off-white throughout the whole test tube. The wax stayed solid until a
temperature of 25Co, the stopping point, was reached.
In all three trials, the wax started to solidify from the outside in, and the part of the wax
submerged in water solidified the fastest. This is because the air surrounding the test tube was
cooler, and because the water was much cooler than the wax.

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Figure 1. How the experiment was set up, with a buret clamp, a ring stand, a beaker, a test
tube, a thermometer, paraffin wax, and a cotton plug.

Figure 2. The paraffin wax just above the surface of the water started to solidify, and seemed
to fog up.

Figure 3. The top surface of the paraffin wax was solidifying.

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Figure 4. The solidification continued up the test tube.

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Figure 5. The paraffin wax was completely solid.

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Table 1. Summary of the cooling process of paraffin wax from all three trials, showing the
temperature of the wax in thirty second intervals.

0
0.5
1
1.5
2
2.5
3
3.5
4
4.5
5
5.5
6
6.5
7
7.5
8
8.5
9
9.5
10
10.5
11
11.5
12
12.5
13
13.5
14
14.5
15
15.5
16
16.6
17
17.5
18
18.5
19
19.5
20

Trial 1 (Co)
70
61
56
54
52
51
50
50
49
48
47
47
46
45
44
42
41
40
39
38
37
36
36
35
34
33
33
32
31
31
30
30
29
28
28
28
27
27
26
26
26

Trial 2 (Co)
70
59
55
53
52
50
49
49
48
47
46
45
45
44
43
43
41
40
39
38
37
36
35
35
34
33
32
31
31
31
30
30
29
29
28
28
28
27
27
26
26

Trial 3 (Co)
70
60
55
53
52
51
50
49
48
47
47
46
45
44
43
42
41
40
39
38
37
36
35
34
33
32
31
31
30
29
29
28
28
27
27
26
26
26
25
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20.5
21
21.5
22
22.5

26
25
-

26
26
26
26
25

Results
The data gathered in this lab was quite coherent. Though the three trials each took a
different amount of time to reach 25 degrees Celsius, the temperatures along the way were
very similar from one trial to the other. Trial 2 is the most different of the three, it seemed to
be consistently 1 or 2 degrees ahead of the other trials at the beginning, and it evened out in
the middle but lagged behind at the end. As shown in Figure 6, there is a clear trend line that
the wax follows. After the first thirty seconds, it starts with a steep drop, averaging about 10
degrees Celsius, then a drop of about 5 degrees after another thirty seconds. It continued to
drop, but less of a difference in temperature was observed as time went by, until it reached
25oC, when the experiment was stopped. The reason for the slope flattening out is as the wax
cools, the water and air around it becomes warmer, therefore, the difference between the two
temperatures decreases, causing the temperature drop to also decrease. The wax seemed to
fully solidify at about 40oC.
The reason that the three trials do not match completely is because of human error. The
thirty seconds could have been counted inaccurately, the level of water in the beaker was
inconsistent, the test tube was not lowered the exact same amount each time, and the
temperature may have been read incorrectly. All these things could have affected the cooling
of the wax. However, the data was still consistent enough to find patterns and a trend line.

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Figure 6. Graph showing the cooling curve of paraffin wax through all three trials. The y-axis
represents the temperature of the wax in degrees Celsius, and the x-axis represents the
time, in minutes. The paraffin wax was cooled from 70 to 25oC. The yellow line is a line
of best fit.

Cooling of Paraffin Wax

70

60

50

Trial 1
Trial 2

Degrees oC

Trial 3

40

30

20
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 910111213141516171819202122
Minutes

Conclusion
In this laboratory, a test tube of liquid paraffin wax, preheated to 70 oC, was placed in a
beaker of room temperature water, the cooling process was observed, and the freezing point
was determined. The experiment continued until the wax reached a temperature of 25 degrees
Celsius. At the beginning, the temperature of the wax dropped very fast, about 10 oC in thirty
seconds. The drops in temperature decreased as time went on. As the experiment reached its
end, the temperature dropped about one degree every minute and a half, the slowest staying at
26oC for three minutes. The data collected was fairly consistent over each trial. A clear trend

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line was found, as seen in Figure 6. The freezing point of paraffin wax was found to be about
40 degrees Celsius.
Questions
Original questions:
1.

How would you explain the plateaus in your heating and cooling curves?

2.

Suppose that more dodecanoic acid had been used in Part 1. What would be the change
in appearance of the new heating curve? Sketch it.

Because the heating process was not observed, and paraffin wax was used in the place of
dodecanoic acid, the questions are rewritten as follows:

1.

How would you explain the plateau in your cooling curve?

The reason for the plateau is as the wax cools, the water and air around it
becomes warmer, therefore, the difference between the two temperatures
decreases, causing the temperature drop to also decrease.

2.

Suppose that more paraffin wax had been used in Part 2. What would be the change
in appearance of the new cooling curve?
If more paraffin wax had been used in Part 2, assuming that everything else
stayed the same, I imagine that the new cooling curve would have less of a
difference between each point than the cooling curve in Figure 6. The wax
would take longer to reach 25oC, so the cooling curve would also continue for
longer.

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