Why couldnt we heat a metal up to 100 deg C by dipping it into boiling water?

Interesting, I'd say it definitely should get up to 100 C. So the situation is you've done an experiment and got an unexpected result. Don't rewrite the textbooks yet though, I can think of a few reasons why it wouldn't (or wouldn't appear to) reach 100.

1) The boiling point of water is affected by atmospheric pressure which goes down with altitude. To get the boiling point down to 80 though you'd have to be about 6000 m up according to google. So unless you're doing your experiments from atop Mt. Logan this isn't your answer.

2) Most likely this is a problem with your measurement method. Metals are very good conductors of heat so temperatures change FAST. As soon as you take that metal out of the water it will start cooling down quickly, only a few seconds to get a significant change (assuming you're not using a 10 kg sphere of metal). Also, it takes some time for the thermometer to heat up, and it sounds like you're just pressing it up against the side of the metal, so there isn't a lot of contact between the two to transfer heat across.

So the metal is cooling down from 100 and the thermometer is heating up from room temp. A bit of time will pass and they'll meet up at a temperature, but its not going to be 100; it'll be lower. 80 sounds about right to me.

There might be something else in there too but I think the majority of what you're seeing comes from what I just described

The metal gains some heat, the water loses it. So the water's temperature decreases. The water temperature has to end up at something less than 100 degrees, and of course the metal won't go higher than the water temperature. So getting a temperature less than 100 degrees is expected.

You could measure the temperature of the water and the temperature of the metal separately. If they are the same, then you've got thermal equilibrium.

Of course, if you keep adding heat to the water to keep it boiling, you can keep it at 100 degrees, and then the metal will get there too. But if you stop adding heat and then add the metal, getting less than 100 degrees is expected.

Is your lecture room at 6000Meters elevation? I doubt it. positioned on your 1819 time device hat and google the definition of specific warmth. How do you degree the steel temperature? concurrently with water temperature? Did you turn off the warmth? Did the water end boiling? You didnt say buti think of i be attentive to the test. you be attentive to of course that stuff (like steel or perhaps an egg being complicated boiled in a pot) that is extra dense than water holds alot extra warmth than the comparable quantity of water on the comparable temperature. extra stuff to wiggle. So, including the steel to the calorimeter will cool the water and the object combination and the suitable temperature would be decrease. the quantity of heat interior the calorimeter is fixed (approximately). the warmth is shared via extra stuff after including the block and hence each gets much less warmth and the temperature exhibits this new decrease point. The question is... do you be attentive to how lots decrease? you may properly be attentive to precisely in case you be attentive to the preliminary temperatures and the quantity of each substance interior the calorimeter. If the brass and aluminum blocks have been the comparable length and comparable room temperature to commence then each could pull down the water temperature in any different case in accordance to their hundreds. Make experience. desire i'm no longer off beam. that's a pleasing and enlightening test. remember it once you cook dinner Say hi to Dulong and Petit for me collectively as your vacationing.

How big is your thermometer and how big is your sample piece of metal?

How were you holding the sample when you removed it?