Specific Heat question

hyde · Junior Member Joined: 24 Apr 2007 Posts: 4

I going nuts trying to solve this can someone help solve.

The specific heat of aluminum is 0.902 J g-1°C-1 at 25°C. How much heat, in kJ, does it take to raise the temperature of a 12.0 g chunk of aluminum from 15.5°C to 35.5°C ?

Hix3r · Regular Joined: 24 Apr 2007 Posts: 43 Location: Hungary

Well specific heat capacity says how much heat I have to put into the object to raise its temperature by one degree per gramm.

So:

Q = m*c*(T2-T1)

Q= how much heat
m= weight of the object
c= the specific heat capacity of the object
T2= what temperature do I want to achieve
T1= on what temperature I begin

So:

Q= 12*0.902*20 = 216.48 J = 0.217 kJ because it asked in kJ!

We don't have to worry about that the specific heat capacity refers to 25 degrees because it's the average of the starting and finishing temperatures. So it does not matter, so small the difference.