3. Use and applications of calorimetry

3.1 Calibration of calorimeters

Calibrating a calorimeter means determining the proportionality ratio S between the signal supplied by the calorimeter and the thermal power (or heat flow) dQ /dt or total heat Q, produced or absorbed within the laboratory cell and at the origin of the signal. When expressed as above, with the calorimetric signal in the numerator, this ratio S has the meaning of sensitivity: the more sensitive the calorimeter, the higher the ratio. Today, this signal is practically always an electrical signal, even if the intermediate physical phenomenon used to detect heat involves other quantities (temperature, mass, length, volume, etc.). For historical reasons, calorimetry books and articles usually mention a calibration constant g (the symbol g reminds us that this...