What is the specific heat capacity of a 50-gram piece of 100°C metal that will change 400 grams of 20°C water to 22°C?

1 Answer
May 20, 2016

smetal=0.86JgC

Explanation:

According to the law of conservation of energy that sates:
Energy cannot be created nor destroyed, we can conclude that the energy lost from the metal is absorbed by water, and therefore;

qlost=qgained

in here, the metal will lose heat and water will gain heat. Note that the specific heat capacity of water is s=4.18JgC.

Thus, m×smetal×ΔT=m×swater×ΔT

50g×smetal×(100C22C)=400g×4.18JgC×(22C20C)

Now we can solve for the specific heat capacity of the metal and we get:

smetal=0.86JgC

Here is a video that explains this topic with more details:
Thermochemistry | Enthalpy and Calorimetry.