Calorimetry Errors

[sin0001]

There was a question asking to calculate the change in enthalpy of a reaction, and then in the next part, it says, the value (of change in enthalpy) determined is found to be slightly less than the actual value, suggest likely errors that could cause this...

Would I be correct, if i wrote- 'Some energy being absorbed by the calorimeter components, causing the cal. factor to be higher...'

[ggxoxo]

I guess if you go further and say 'because the calorimeter was not well insulated' then you should be okay... but make sure it doesn't say in the stem of the question that it was a 'well insulated' calorimeter...

[sin0001]

I thought that calorimeter not being well insulated & ' 'Some energy being absorbed by the calorimeter components, were two distinct errors?

[ggxoxo]

I thought it could work both ways; if it's not insulated well enough it can lose energy but, inadvertently, it can also gain energy...

[Tonychet2]

the actual calibration factor differs from before the reaction and after the reaction, initially the calibration factor is calculated with the solution and the reactants, however during the course of the reaction the accumulation of products will cause a difference in the actual enthalpy change and estimated enthalpy change (from formula )