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"1 g of that substance by 1^@"C"1C.

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.