Conversion of electrical energy into thermal energy

Principle

The heating and lighting effects of electric current are well known to the students from everyday life, and they have already experimented with filament lamps and utilised their illuminating, or lighting, effect as a measure of the strength of electric current.

In this experiment, it is important that they realise that in all these processes, electrical energy is converted into thermal energy in the form of heat.

In the evaluation, one of the following themes can be handled according to the state of knowledge of the students: in the simplest case, the phenomenon and for a higher theoretical demand, the energy ballance.

E_el = Q    with     E_el = U × I ×  t.

The heat capacity of the glass vessel must be taken into consideration in the evaluation.

Q = [(c_Glass +  c_Water) × m_Water] × ? T.

Task

How does an immersion heater work?

Set up a circuit with a model of an immersion heater and use it to convert electrical energy into thermal energy.

Literature for this article als follows

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