Question

A lab student has an unknown metal with a mass of 227 g that they want to identify. The student places the metal in boiling water (100? ?) and lets it come to equilibrium (i.e. the metal is the same temperature as the water). The student then places the metal in a beaker of water with a mass of 300g and an initial temperature of 20? ?. The beaker of water comes to a final temperature of 40 0C. Determine the specific heat of the metal. Take the specific heat of water to be 4186 J/ (kgc)

Answer 1

The mass of the metal is = 227g = 0.227 kg , The initial temperature Ti = 100 deg C The final temperature Tf = 20 deg C. specific heat of the metal be .

The change of temperature be

The mass of the metal is = 300 g = 0.3 kg , The inital temperature of water T'i = 20 deg C , The final temperature T'f = 40 deg C

The heat flow from the metal iw equal to heat flow by the water

so ,

putting the value we get

the heat capacity of the metal is

. = 1844 J/kgC