Question #39f99

1 Answer
Nov 5, 2015

Here's what I got.

Explanation:

A substance's specific heat tells you how much heata is needed to increase the temperature of #"1 g"# of that substance by #1^@"C"#.

The equation that establishes a relationship between heat absorbed and increase in temperature looks like this

#color(blue)(q = m * c * DeltaT)" "#, where

#q# - the heat absorbed by the sample
#m# - the mass of the sample
#c# - the specific heat of the substance
#DeltaT# - the change in temperature, defined as the final temperature minus the initial temperature

In your case, you know that

  • your metal sample has a mass of #"15.0 g"#
  • the temperature of the sample increases from #25.00^@"C"# to #32.00^@"C"# after adding #"178.1 J"# worth of heat to it

So, plug in your values and solve for #c#, the specific heat of the metal

#c = q/(m * DeltaT)#

#c = "178.1 J"/("15.0 g" * (32.00 - 25.00)^@"C") = color(green)(1.70"J"/("g" ""^@"C"))#

SIDE NOTE This is a very high value to get for the specific heat of a metal, so make sure that you double-check the values you were given for heat absorbed, mass, and temperature change.

The way I see it, either the mass of the sample or the temperature change are too small, or the amount of heat absorbed is too high.