Abstract
We designed an experiment to demonstrate the concepts of heat and work in a thermodynamic system. Heat is thermal energy in the form of the movement of particles at the molecular and atomic scale. A Stirling engine is a mechanical device that can harness heat energy into the mechanical energy of a spinning flywheel. In this lab experiment, the efficiency of the Stirling engine is determined by calculating how much heat energy in the system is transferred into the actual rotation of the flywheel of the engine. Through doing this, it demonstrates, in a non-abstract way, the concepts of work and energy.