Bomb Calorimeter — Heat of Combustion Simulator

Sample

Sample mass 1.20 g

Water bath mass 2.00 kg

Calorimeter constant C_cal 2.50 kJ/°C

Sealed. Ready to ignite.

Live readings

Water temperature

25.00 °C

ΔT so far

0.00 °C

Heat released Q

0.00 kJ

Total heat capacity

10.87 kJ/°C

Measured ΔH_combustion

— kJ/g

How it works

A weighed sample is sealed in a steel "bomb" under oxygen and submerged in a known mass of stirred water. Igniting it releases essentially all of its combustion energy as heat, which raises the temperature of the water plus the calorimeter hardware itself:

Heat released:      Q = m_sample × |ΔH_c|
Total heat capacity: C_total = C_cal + m_water × c_water   (c_water = 4.184 kJ/kg·°C)
Temperature rise:    ΔT = Q / C_total
Measured ΔH_c:        ΔH_c = -(C_total × ΔT) / m_sample

Because the bomb is sealed and (essentially) rigid, no work is done on the surroundings, so the heat measured at constant volume equals the internal-energy change of combustion, ΔU_comb ≈ ΔH_comb for these reactions. This is exactly how benzoic acid is burned first to calibrate C_cal, then unknown samples are burned to find their heat of combustion.

Substance — sets the reference heat of combustion used to drive the reaction (benzoic acid ≈ 26.4 kJ/g, glucose ≈ 15.6 kJ/g, ethanol ≈ 29.7 kJ/g, naphthalene ≈ 40.1 kJ/g).
Sample mass / water mass / C_cal — set up the experiment exactly as a real calorimetrist would before ignition.
Ignite — sparks the sample; the water molecules speed up and shift toward red as heat diffuses in, and the thermometer column climbs to the new equilibrium.
The "Measured ΔH_combustion" readout is computed only from C_total and the observed ΔT — exactly as it would be from real calorimeter data — and should land close to the substance's true value once the reading settles.

Cool water molecules Heated water molecules Combustion (inside bomb)

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