Thermodynamics Chemistry Combined Metals

Question

A sheet of gold weighing 10.0 grams and at a temperature of 18.0 °C is placed flat on a sheet of iron weighing 30.0 grams at a temperature of 55.6 °C. What is the final temperature of the combined metals? Assume that no heat is lost to the surroundings.

I am not sure how to do the equation for this question, can someone help me out?

Answer 1

There will be heat transferred form the hot metal (iron) to the cold metal (gold). In order to answer this question, one needs to know the specific heats of both metals. Then use q = mC∆T where q is heat, m is mass, C is specific heat and ∆T is the change in temperature. So, you will have the following...

-m_iron x C_iron x Tf-55.6 = m_gold x C_gold x Tf-18.0

-(30.0 g)(C_iron)(Tf-55.6) = (10.0 g )(C_gold)(Tf-18.0)j

Look up the specific heat (C) for iron and for gold, and substitute them in the above equation and solve for Tf which will be the final temperature of both metals.