Question

An amount of energy is added to ice, raising its temperature from -10°C to -5°C. A larger amount of energy is added to the same mass of water, raising its temperature from 15°C to 20°C. From these results, what can we conclude?

A.) Overcoming the latent heat of fusion of ice requires an input of energy.

B.) The latent heat of fusion of ice delivers some energy to the system.

C.) The specific heat of ice is greater than that of water.

D.) The specific heat of ice is greater than that of water.

Answer 1

Quantity of heat absorbed by a material is Q = m CΔT

Where m is the mass, C is the specific heat and ΔT is the change in temperature.

The masses of ice and water are the same and both are heated through same temperature range.

But, water takes more heat than ice to heat through same temperature range. This implies that the specific heat of water is greater than the specific heat of ice.

We can conclude from the result that:

(d): the specific heat of ice is less than that of water.

Please note: in the question, choices C and D are identical and the choice D needed to be changed into the specific heat of ice is less than that of water