Heat Capacity Practice Problems

Even when exposed to the same hot weather condition, a deck made of rubber tiles feels hotter than a deck made of concrete tiles. Based on this observation, predict whether the specific heat of rubber is higher or lower than that of concrete. Provide a justification for your answer.

Determine the heat energy lost, in joules and calories, by using the heat equation when a 35.5-g sample of methanol is cooled from 50.0°C to 25.0°C. Use the data below:

Determine the energy required to heat the two cylinders (one made of tin and the other composed of tungsten) from 25.00°C to 45.00°C if each has a volume of 25.00 cm³.

There are three metals: calcium, lead, and nickel. At 25.0°C, 20.0-g samples of each metal are supplied with the same quantity of heat. Using the specific heat capacities in the table below, determine which metal would reach the highest temperature.

The temperature of a metal increases by 20.3°C when it absorbs 161 J of heat. If the mass of the metal is 33.7 g, calculate its specific heat in J/g•°C and determine the identity of the metal based on the table below.

When a metal is supplied 60.6 cal of heat, its temperature increases by 20.0°C. If the mass of the metal is 30.0 g, calculate the specific heat, in cal/g•°C, of the metal.

A group of people doing an exploration came upon an abandoned basement where they found a ring that they think is made of pure titanium. When 15.0 J or 3.59 cal of heat was applied to the ring weighing 9.00 g, its temperature rose by 3.19 °C. Determine the specific heat of the ring. Are the explorers correct in their assumption that the ring is made of pure titanium? Note that the specific heat of pure titanium is 0.523 J/g•°C.

Find the specific heat of silver (in J/g°C) if it requires 4.42 cal or 18.5 J to raise the temperature of a 2.25 g sample of silver from 25 °C to 60 °C.

Burning one tablespoon of glucose can provide 90. kcal of energy. Assuming that all of the energy from glucose can be used up, determine the number of tablespoons of glucose needed to be burned to increase the temperature of 2.50 L of water initially at 27.0°C to 85.0°C.

A certain butter has a specific heat of 0.488 cal/g•C (2.04 J/g•°C) and its density is 0.911 g/cm³. Calculate the amount of energy (in cal and J) required to melt a 219.5 cm³ block of butter initially at 10°C. The melting point of this butter is 40°C.

Ethyl acetate is a solvent used for recrystallization processes. Ethyl acetate has a specific heat of 0.455 cal/g•°C. Calculate the heat energy lost in the cooling process when 111 g of ethyl acetate was heated to its boiling point (77.1°C) to dissolve a sample and then cooled down to room temperature (25.0°C). Assume that the specific heat does not change.

A sample of gas with a mass of 50 g is heated from 20 °C to 300 °C while 300 J of work was done by the system, and its internal energy increased by 6000 J. Calculate the specific heat of the gas from the given information.

What is the molar heat capacity of ethanol (CH₃CH₂OH) if the specific heat of ethanol is 112.3 J/(mol⋅°C)?

Calculate the amount of heat (joules) needed to raise the temperature of a block of nickel weighing 2.65 kg from 28.0°C to 92.5°C. The specific heat of copper metal is 0.385 J/g•K.