Question

A beaker is half filled with water. A thermometer is placed in the water and the temperature is notes to be 25°C. The beaker is placed on a tripod and, instead of using a Bunsen Burner, a spirit burner filled with ethanol, C2H5OH, is lit and placed underneath the beaker.

a)Why can the ethanol be used as a fuel in the spirit burner?
b)After about ten minutes, the reading on the thermometer is checked. What should one observe?

Answer 1

a)     Ethanol is a volatile carbon containingsubstance, which can be burned according to the reaction:
C₂H₅OH+O₂=CO₂+H₂O
b)     This oxidationreaction (burning) produces heat. That is why, when in 10 minutes the reading on the thermometer was checked, the temperature rising should be observed.