Answer:
- <u><em>It will be less than 26 °C as water has a relatively higher specific heat than sand.</em></u>
Explanation:
The <em>specific heat </em>of a substance is the amount of heat energy absorbed by one unit of mass of the substance when its temperature increases one unit.
From that, you can derive the equation for the specific heat of a substance:
- specific heat = heat / (mass × ΔT)
Thus, assuming that all the heat provided by the lamp to both samples is the same and, as given, the amount (mass) of both samples is also the same, you have that the specific heat of the samples will be:
- specific heat = constant / ΔT
So, specific heat and ΔT are inversely related.
It is known that water has a higher specific heat than sand (that is why the sand on the shore of a beach is, during the day, hotter than the water and your feet get burned when you walk on a sandy beach on a sunny day).
Then, since the specific heat of water is greater than the specific heat of sand, the increase of temperature of water will be lower and, consequently, water will reach a lower final temperature than sand, when equal amounts of water and sand are heated as described in the experiment. This is the second choice: the final temperature of water is less than 26°C as water has a relatively higher specific heat than water.
