The Museum of Science and Industry in Manchester - Joule and Energy

INTRODUCTION
THE EXPERIMENT
JOULE'S LIFE AND WORK
APPARATUS
EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES
GLOSSARY

Welcome >> Joule's life and work >> The importance of the environment to the experiment

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The artist's impression above, shows how Joule's apparatus and cellar may have looked at the time that he did his experiment.

The artist's impression above, shows how Joule's apparatus and cellar may have looked at the time that he did his experiment. Click here to see a larger image.

Why did Joule do his experiment in a basement?

The difference in the temperature of the water was very small - around 0.1°Fahrenheit (0.2°C). Joule found that even his body temperature affected the results in an ordinary room. This would have been absorbed in the stable environment of the basement of his father's brewery.

The students in Oldenburg who recreated the experiment found that the apparatus would have needed two people to operate and that the person turning the handle would have expended quite a lot of energy, getting hot in the process.

 

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