Quandaries & Queries - Math Central

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Quandaries & Queries

Question from erin, a student:

Hi-
2 kg metal requires 1.00 X 10⁴ J of heat to raise its temperature from 20 degrees C to 40 degrees C. What is the specific heat capacity of the metal?

Hi Erin,

Find the specific heat is fairly simple if you know the formula:

Where
Q is the heat
m is the mass
c is specific heat of the substance
ΔT is change in temperature (ΔT = Final temperature - Initial Temperature)

If you rearrange the first formula and solve for c, you can just plug in your numbers and find specific heat.

Hope this helps,

Janice

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