An object with a mass of #200 g# is dropped into #300 mL# of water at #0^@C#. If the object cools by #72 ^@C# and the water warms by #3 ^@C#, what is the specific heat of the material that the object is made of?

1 Answer
May 18, 2018

The specific heat is #=0.26 kJkg^-1K^-1#

Explanation:

The heat is transferred from the hot object to the cold water.

For the cold water, # Delta T_w=3ºC#

For the hot object #DeltaT_o=72ºC#

# m_o C_o (DeltaT_o) = m_w C_w (DeltaT_w)#

The specific heat of water #C_w=4.186kJkg^-1K^-1#

Let, #C_o# be the specific heat of the object

The mass of the object is #m_o=0.200kg#

The mass of the water is #m_w=0.300kg#

#0.2*C_o*72=0.3*4.186*3#

#C_0=(0.3*4.186*3)/(0.2*72)#

#=0.26 kJkg^-1K^-1#