Question

Brass is an alloy made from copper and zinc. A 0.66 kg brass sample at 98.6 °C is dropped into 2.33 L of water at 4.6 °C. If the equilibrium temperature is 7.0 °C, what is the specific heat capacity of brass? Express your answer as J/kg°C

Answer 1

The specific heat capacity of a material is the amount of heat required to raise the temperature of 1 kg of material by 1 °C.

Specific heat capacity = amount of heat supplied to the object / (mass of that object * change in temperature)

So,

amount of heat supplied = specific heat * mass * change in temperature

During the process of achiving equilibrium temperature, the heat (energy) is transmitted within the system to achieve a common temperature and in this process

heat (energy) lost by a body (which is brass in this question) = heat (energy) gained by another body (which is water in this question)

Ans. 3.82 x 10² J/kg°C.