What factors could have affected your results?

do the factors in a t-chart having factors leading to a low specific heat on the left side and factors leading to a high specific heat on the right side.

See below  

Step-by-step explanation:

heat gained by metal + heat lost by water = 0

           m₁C₁ΔT₁           +         m₂C₂ΔT₂         = 0

C₁ = -(m₂C₂ΔT₂)/(m₁ΔT₁)

The factors determining C₁ are

Any factor that makes the numerator higher or the denominator lower than what you thought, will give a calculated C₁ that is too high (and vice versa).

The major sources of uncertainty are probably in determining the temperatures, especially the initial and final temperatures of the metal. However, you will have to decide what the principal factors were in your experiment.

For example, did the metal have a chance to cool during the transfer to the calorimeter? How easy was it to determine the equilibrium temperature, etc?

Factors Affecting the Calculation of Specific Heat Capacity

         Too Low                                    Too high                                

Water                                             Water

    Mass less than thought                Mass more than thought

    Ti lower                                         Ti higher

    T_f higher                                       T_f lower

Metal                                              Metal

    Mass more than thought             Mass less than thought

    Ti higher                                       Ti lower

1. the question asks the most appropriate, which seems to rule out "all of the above." your choice appears to be the correct one.

2. the protocol described is good for identifying correlation, but not cause and effect. for cause/effect, you need to devise a protocol that will assign the treatment (or not) to groups that have essentially the same "demographics" with respect to all the other variables. your choice regarding control group seems appropriate. random assignment of treatment (choice d) may be appropriate also. (i think you can argue that b and d are just different descriptions of the same method.)

3. d will randomize the birds, but may not guarantee there are 10 in each group. e will do both, so seems the better choice.

comment on question 2

based on the problem statement, it seems clear that confident, attentive drivers are more likely to use daytime running lights. so, the protocol might need to be devised in such a way that the lights would be turned on or off without the driver's knowledge. (an attentive driver will figure it out.) assigning a confident, attentive driver to a group required to drive without running lights might mess with his/her confidence and attentiveness. you don't want your experiment to do that. (nor do you want the experiment to subject a driver to greater risk of accident as a consequence of driving without running lights.) experiments involving human safety are always problematic.