Calculate the specific heat capacity of quartz according to this experiment.

Question

A 52.3 g sample of quartz is put into a calorimeter that contains 150.0 g of water. The quartz sample starts off at 95.3 C and the temperature of the water starts off at 25.0 C. When the temperature of the water stops changing it's 29.1 C. The pressure remains constant at 1 atm.

Calculate the specific heat capacity of quartz according to this experiment. Be sure your answer is rounded to the correct number of significant digits.

I tried to switch up the formula to find the specific heat capacity, but my answers continue to be incorrect and I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong.

Answer 1

The key concept here is that the heat lost by the hot quartz must be equal to the heat gained by the water.

The heat lost by the quartz is mC∆T where m is mass, C is specific heat; ∆T is change in temperature. Heat gained by water is also mC∆T.

So we have (52.3 g)(C)(95.3 - 29.1 degrees) = heat lost by quartz

and we have (150 g)(4.184 J/g/deg)(29.1 - 25.0 degrees) = heat gained by water. Setting them equal we have

(52.3 g)(C)(66.2 deg) = 2573 J

C = 0.743 J/g/degree (3 sig. figs.)

Hope this helps explain the process.