The amount of energy needed to heat 2.00 g of carbon from 50.0°C to 80.0°C is 42.6 J. The specific heat capacity of this sample of carbon is ?

1 Answer
Stefan V.
Mar 2, 2015

The specific heat of carbon will be 0.710 J/g * C.

You have all the information you need to determine carbon's specific heat by using

#q = m * c * DeltaT#, where

#q# - the amount of heat needed - in your case 42.6 J;
#m# - the mass of the sample - in your case 2.00 g;
#c# - the specific heat of carbon;
#DeltaT# - the difference between the final and the initial temperature - in your case #80^@"C"# and #50^@"C"#;

So, plug all the data into the equation

#q = m * c * DeltaT => c = q/(m * DeltaT)#

#c = "42.6 J"/("2.00 g" * (80.0-50.0)^@"C") = 0.710 "J"/("g" * ^@"C")#

Related questions
See all questions in Specific Heat
Impact of this question
11301 views around the world
You can reuse this answer
Creative Commons License