Question

11. What is the specific heat of a substance with a mass of 25.5 g that requires 412 J

Answer 1

Answer:

297 J

Explanation:

The key to this problem lies with aluminium's specific heat, which as you know tells you how much heat is needed in order to increase the temperature of

1 g

of a given substance by

1

∘

C

.

In your case, aluminium is said to have a specific heat of

0.90

J

g

∘

C

.

So, what does that tell you?

In order to increase the temperature of

1 g

of aluminium by

1

∘

C

, you need to provide it with

0.90 J

of heat.

But remember, this is how much you need to provide for every gram of aluminium in order to increase its temperature by

1

∘

C

. So if you wanted to increase the temperature of

10.0 g

of aluminium by

1

∘

C

, you'd have to provide it with

1 gram



0.90 J

+

1 gram



0.90 J

+

...

+

1 gram



0.90 J



10 times

=

10

×

0.90 J

However, you don't want to increase the temperature of the sample by

1

∘

C

, you want to increase it by

Δ

T

=

55

∘

C

−

22

∘

C

=

33

∘

C

This means that you're going to have to use that much heat for every degree Celsius you want the temperature to change. You can thus say that

1

∘

C



10

×

0.90 J

+

1

∘

C



10

×

0.90 J

+

...

+

1

∘

C



10

×

0.90 J



33 times

=

33

×

10

×

0.90 J

Therefore, the total amount of heat needed to increase the temperature of

10.0 g

of aluminium by

33

∘

C

will be

q

=

10.0

g

⋅

0.90

J

g

∘

C

⋅

33

∘

C

q

=

297 J

I'll leave the answer rounded to three sig figs, despite the fact that your values only justify two sig figs.

For future reference, this equation will come in handy

q

=

m

⋅

c

⋅

Δ

T

, where

q

- the amount of heat added / removed

m

- the mass of the substance

c

- the specific heat of the substance

Δ

T

- the change in temperature, defined as the difference between the final temperature and the initial temperature of the sample