Why is the calorimeter made out of two styrofoam cups?

Coffee Cup Calorimetry. The “coffee-cup” name comes from the fact that most of the time this experiment is done inside of a simple styrofoam cup. A styrofoam cup makes for a good adiabatic wall and helps keep all the heat released or absorbed by the reaction inside the cup so we can measure it.Click to see full answer. Similarly, it is asked, how do you make a styrofoam cup using a calorimeter? Steps To build the calorimeter, take one styrofoam cup and place it inside the other. Cut two small holes in the cardboard which will fit the stir and the thermometer and place them in the holes. Now, use your graduated cylinder to measure 150mL of water. Beside above, why do we use a Styrofoam cup and not a metal cup as a calorimeter? Heat loss – As you note, metal conducts heat much more effectively than styrofoam. This means that the metal calorimeter will carry the heat of the reaction away from the reaction vessel to the outside world faster than styrofoam will. Styrofoam calorimeters are often a couple of coffee cups jammed together. Consequently, why does a calorimeter have two cups? The role of the Styrofoam in a coffee cup calorimeter is that it reduces the amount of heat exchange between the water in the coffee cup and the surrounding air. The value of a lid on the coffee cup is that it also reduces the amount of heat exchange between the water and the surrounding air.What is the best material for a calorimeter?Probably the simplest of such devices is the coffee cup calorimeter. The Styrofoam coffee cup is a relatively good insulating material. A lid cardboard or other material also helps to prevent loss of heat, and a thermometer measures the change in temperature.