Editing Calorimeter (section)

==Adiabatic calorimeters==
[[File:Calorimeter of Lavoisier and La Place plate xi the s1784m49j 3f462600t dl full size.jpg|thumb|right|The Calorimeter of Lavoisier and La Place, 1801]]
An [[adiabatic process|adiabatic]] calorimeter is a calorimeter used to examine a runaway reaction.  Since the calorimeter runs in an adiabatic environment, any heat generated by the material sample under test causes the sample to increase in temperature, thus fueling the reaction.

No adiabatic calorimeter is fully adiabatic - some heat will be lost by the sample to the sample holder. A mathematical correction factor, known as the phi-factor, can be used to adjust the calorimetric result to account for these heat losses. The phi-factor is the ratio of the [[thermal mass]] of the sample and sample holder to the thermal mass of the sample alone.