Vernier Software & Technology

# Fossil Fuels

## Introduction

Hydrocarbons are compounds containing only hydrogen and carbon atoms. Many common fuels such as gasoline, diesel fuel, heating oil, aviation fuel, and natural gas are essentially mixtures of hydrocarbons. Paraffin wax, used to make many candles, is a mixture of hydrocarbons with the representative formula C25H52.

Ethyl alcohol, a substituted hydrocarbon with the formula C2H5OH, is used as a gasoline additive (gasohol) and as a gasoline substitute.

## Objectives

In the Preliminary Activity, you will determine the heat of combustion of paraffin wax (in kJ/g). You will first use the energy from burning paraffin wax to heat a known quantity of water. By monitoring the temperature of the water, you can find the amount of heat transferred to it (in kJ), using the formula

$q = C_p \cdot m \cdot \Delta t$

where q is heat, Cp is the specific heat capacity of water, m is the mass of water, and Δt is the change in temperature of the water. Finally, the amount of fuel burned will be taken into account by calculating the heat per gram of paraffin wax consumed in the combustion.

After completing the Preliminary Activity, you will first use reference sources to find out more about fossil fuel energy before you choose and investigate a researchable question.

## Sensors and Equipment

This investigation features the following Vernier sensors and equipment.

You may also need an interface and software for data collection. What do I need for data collection?

## Investigating Environmental Science through Inquiry

See other experiments from the lab book.

 1 Seasons and Angle of Insolation 2 A Local Weather Study 3 Investigating Dissolved Oxygen 4 Water Quality 5 Long Term Water Monitoring 6 Water Treatment 7 Investigating Salinity 8 Soil Temperature 9 Soil Salinity 10 Soil pH 11 Soil Moisture 12 Soil and Acid Rain 13 Managing Garden Soil Moisture 14 Cell Respiration (CO2) 15 Biodiversity in Ecosystems 16 Biochemical Oxygen Demand 17 Water Cycle Column Investigations 18 Decomposition Column Investigations 19 Ecocolumn Investigations 20 Global Warming 21 UV Investigations 22 Comparing Sunscreens 23 Primary Productivity 24 Modeling Population Growth 25 Insulation Study 26 Fossil Fuels 27 Energy Conversion 28 Wind Power 29 Photovoltaic Cells 30 Investigation of Passive Solar Heating 31 The Effect of Acid Deposition on Aquatic Ecosystems 32 Measuring Particulates 33 Investigating Indoor Carbon Dioxide Concentrations 34 A Pollution Study

### Investigation 26 from Investigating Environmental Science through Inquiry Lab Book

#### Included in the Lab Book

Vernier lab books include word-processing files of the student instructions, essential teacher information, suggested answers, sample data and graphs, and more.