Mechanical Equivalent of Heat — Software for a Thermistor

摘要

The Mechanical Equivalent of Heat Apparatus from PASCO scientific provides the means for doing a simple experiment to determine the mechanical equivalent of heat, J. A necessary step of this experiment is to determine the temperature of an aluminum cylinder. By measuring the resistance of a thermistor embedded in the cylinder, one is able to determine the cylinder's temperature to ±1°C using a table of resistance versus temperature supplied by PASCO.1 To allow for a more accurate temperature determination, I have developed software to calculate the temperature to ~ ±0.3°C.