Specific heat capacity of hair

Tree

Anyone know what teh specific heat capacity of human hair is?


(i dont really want to finish this lab report for biochem and this is a totally irrelevant question.... well.... not entirely, ive a hot water bottle sandwiched between me and the seat and in the middle is my hair, i want to know how much heat was lost to heating up my hair before heating me)

Panserborn

Tree wrote:

i dont really want to finish this lab report for biochem and this is a totally irrelevant question

Hmm, agreed. I've gone through undergrad and postgrad in biochem and I don't think I have ever had to answer something like this. Its more a biophysics question ................... if even .

Tree

it had nothing to do w/ the lab report, this is the main reason it interested me, and also that i have over two feet of the stuff hanging off my head.


my buddies in chemistry decided that ill never find the answer unless i go look for itself coz of the various conditions (levels of hydration) and the fact taht the major insulation properties comes from its trapping of air


ahhh welll

dudara

Time for an experiment:D

I suggest that you get a straightener of known wattage, a timer, a thermometer and some scales.

1. Measure start temperature of a section of hair.

2. Apply straighteners for a known length of time.

3. Measure final temperature.

4. Using scales, estimate mass of hair section ( Cutting it off would be best, but maybe not the most practical).

Wattage of straighteners measures the Power. Power = Energy/Time.

Therefore the amount of energy delivered equals Power*time.

Delta(T) is the change in temperature

specific heat capacity (shc) can then be calculated as follows

shc = energy / (mass*Delta(T))

Tree

well i was planning on getting a trim in the coming days (bout six inches off the end) and my best friend who's doin it is a physicist.... but the thermometer will be a tough one to find, in particular one that will measure the tem p fo my hair

nitroboy

you might be able to use a standard thermometer by placing the hair in a known volume of water. then you could subtract the heat capacity of the water to get ur final result!!