Question

A chemistry student needs to determine the specific heat capacity of a metal block. The student has the following information: the mass of the block is 75 g and its initial temperature is 25°C. The student heats the block to 100°C, and calculates that it absorbed 1500 J of heat during this process. What is the specific heat capacity of the metal block?

Answer 1

To determine the specific heat capacity of the metal block, we can use the formula:q = mcTwhere q is the heat absorbed  in joules , m is the mass of the block  in grams , c is the specific heat capacity  in J/gC , and T is the change in temperature  in C .We have the following information:q = 1500 Jm = 75 gT = 100C - 25C = 75CWe need to find the specific heat capacity  c . Rearranging the formula to solve for c, we get:c = q /  mT Now, we can plug in the values:c = 1500 J /  75 g  75C c = 1500 J / 5625 gCc  0.267 J/gCThe specific heat capacity of the metal block is approximately 0.267 J/gC.