An object with a mass of 90 g is dropped into 500 mL of water at 0^@C. If the object cools by 30 ^@C and the water warms by 30 ^@C, what is the specific heat of the material that the object is made of?

1 Answer
Jul 19, 2017

The specific heat is =23.3kJkg^-1K^-1

Explanation:

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

For the cold water, Delta T_w=30^@C

For the object DeltaT_o=30^@C

m_o C_o (DeltaT_o) = m_w C_w (DeltaT_w)

C_w=4.186kJkg^-1K^-1

Let, C_o be the specific heat of the object

Mass of the object is m_0=0.090kg

Mass of the water is m_w=0.5kg

0.09*C_o*30=0.5*4.186*30

C_o=(0.5*4.186*30)/(0.09*30)

=23.3kJkg^-1K^-1