Question

A small ice cube (initially at -5.00 degrees Celsius) is placed in a calorimeter along with 750.0 grams of water (at 45.00 degrees Celsius) and a 250.0 gram piece of copper (at 100.00 degrees Celsius). The system comes to thermal equilibrium at 43.34 degrees Celsius. What is the mass of the ice cube?

Answer 1

To solve this question we will use law of conservation of energy. We will apply the fact that heat gained by the ice will be equal to the heat lost by the water and copper.

we will use the equation =mc() ; where m=mass of substance,c=specific heat of the substance, =change in tempratureof the substance, =heat released or absorbed by the surrounding.

NOW.

let mass of ice be x; then

xc₁()+xl+xc₂()= m₃c₂()+m₄c₃

where c₁=specific heat of ice, l=latent heat of fusion of water, c₂=specific heat of water, c₃=specific heat of copper,

2.1085(x)+(x)333+(x)4.1843.34= 0.754.181.66+ 0.2556.660.376

524.70(x)=57.366

(x)=0.109kg