A piece of gold initially at a temperature of 25.1 °C absorbs 675 J of heat, raising its temperature to 57.4 °C. Assuming the specific heat of gold is 0.126 J/(g°C), what is the mass of the sample?
1 Answer
Explanation:
The key here is the specific heat of gold, which is said to be equal to
#c_"gold" = "0.126 J g"^(-1)""^@"C"^(-1)#
This tells you that in order to increase the temperature of
In your case, the temperature increases from
#57.4^@"C" - 25.1^@"C" = 32.3^@"C"#
Now, you can use the specific heat of gold to calculate how much energy would be needed to increase the temperature of gold by
#32.3 color(red)(cancel(color(black)(""^@"C"))) * "0.126 J"/("1 g" * 1color(red)(cancel(color(black)(""^@"C")))) = "4.0698 J g"^(-1)#
This tells you that in order to increase the temperature of
You can thus say that
#675 color(red)(cancel(color(black)("J"))) * "1 g"/(4.0698color(red)(cancel(color(black)("J")))) = "165.86 g"#
of gold by
#color(darkgreen)(ul(color(black)("mass of gold = 166 g")))#