Question

What is the specific heat capacity of styrofoam?

Answer 1

We need to remember that Styrofoam is a brand name.
It is actually a chemical compound polystyrene. Various values of its specific heat capacity are found. These are listed below.

Explanation:

`" " (cal//g °C) " "(J//kg K)`
Styrofoam `" "0.27 " "1131` Reference 1.

`" "(J.mol^-1.K^-1)`
Polystyrene`" " 126.5 ± 0.6` Reference 2.

The molar weight of the polystyrene taken as `104.15 g`
With this the recommended value of Polystyrene comes to `approx1215(J//kg K)`

One could use either of the above values depending on the accuracy desired. My preference would be the value given for Polystyrene under Reference 2.