Question

The Starship Enterprise is caught in a time warp and Spock is forced to use the primitive techniques of the 20th century to determine the specific heat capacity of an unknown mineral. The 120-g sample was heated to 92.6°C and placed into a calorimeter containing 82.9 g of water at 20.0°C. The heat capacity of the calorimeter was 15.3 J/K. The final temperature in the calorimeter was 24.8°C. What is the specific heat capacity (in J/g°C) of the mineral? Enter to 4 decimal places.

Answer 1

Answer:c=0.213 J/g/K  

Explanation:

Given

sample mass$(m_s)=120 gm$

initial temperature of mineral$(T_{im})=92.6$

mass of water$(m_w)=82.9$

Water initial temperature$(T_{iw})=20$

Heat capacity of calorimeter =15.3 J/k

Final Temperature is 24.8

let c be the specific heat of mineral

Heat released by mineral sample=heat absorbed by calorimeter and water

$120\times c\times (92.6-24.8)=82.9\times 4.184\times (24.8-20)+15.3\times (24.8-20)$

$c\times 67.8=14.486$

$c=0.213 J/g/K$