Jesse E. answered • 07/12/19
Masters in Chemistry specializing in preparing for ACT Science.
The equation for calculating the heat change is given by:
q = ms∇T
where q is the heat change, m is the mass is grams, s is the specific heat of a substance and can be obtained by searching for this value in a table, and ∇T is the change in temperature in Celsius. (Note: on here I used the ∇ to represent the Greek letter Delta. In textbooks, this will be represented as a triangle.)
The specific heat of water is 4.184 J/g °C. (This is common in problems so I would commit this to memory.)
The temperature of ice is at 0°C.
Now we just have to substitute in the values.
q = 10 grams (4.184 J/gºC) 41°C = 1715.44 J
This is the answer is Joules. We have to convert to calories using the conversion 1 calorie = 4.184 J:
1715.44 J (1 cal/4.184 J) = 410 calories.
The answer is it takes 410 calories to heat 10 grams of frozen ice to 41 degrees Celsius.
