Question

The specific heat of silver is 0.057 calories/gram°C. If 10.0 grams of silver were heated and the temperature of the sample changed by 20.0°C, how many calories of heat energy were absorbed by the sample?

3,508 calories
0.029 calories
11.4 calories
0.114 calories

Answer 1

Answer: 11.4 cal

Explanation:

The amount of heat absorbed by the sample is given by:

Q = m c ΔT

where, m is the mass, c is the specific heat and ΔT is the change in temperature.

Specific heat is the amount of heat required to raise the temperature of 1 g of mass by 1°C.

⇒Q = 10.0 g × 0.057 cal/g °C × 20.0° C = 11.4 cal

Thus, 11.4 calories would be absorbed by the sample of silver.

Answer 2

Since the specific heat of silver is given to be 0.057 calories/gram*C, obtaining the amount of calories should be as easy as multiplying the specific heat by the given values of the weight and the temperature to do unit cancellation. This is shown below:

(0.057 calories/gram*C)(10 grams)(20 C) = 11.4 calories