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Specific Heat Capacity Questions

This document provides specific heat capacity values for various materials and poses several problems involving calculating changes in internal energy and temperature for different substances when heat is added or removed. It asks the reader to: 1) Calculate the internal energy change for heating different masses of water, copper, polystyrene, and steel by 10K. 2) Explain why a fruit filling may scald your tongue while pastry is harmless when both are eaten fresh from the oven. 3) Estimate the time needed to heat 1kg of water from room temperature to 100°C using a 1m parabolic mirror focusing sunlight.

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Mary Ann Orsua
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8 views

Specific Heat Capacity Questions

This document provides specific heat capacity values for various materials and poses several problems involving calculating changes in internal energy and temperature for different substances when heat is added or removed. It asks the reader to: 1) Calculate the internal energy change for heating different masses of water, copper, polystyrene, and steel by 10K. 2) Explain why a fruit filling may scald your tongue while pastry is harmless when both are eaten fresh from the oven. 3) Estimate the time needed to heat 1kg of water from room temperature to 100°C using a 1m parabolic mirror focusing sunlight.

Uploaded by

Mary Ann Orsua
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOC, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Specific Heat Capacity Questions

Specific heat capacities; Aluminium900Jkg–1K–1, Copper 385Jkg–1K–1, Expanded polystyrene 1300Jkg–1K–1,


Iron and steel 450Jkg–1K–1, Ice 2100Jkg–1K–1, Air 1000Jkg–1K–1, Water 4200Jkg–1K–1

1. For each of the following, find the internal energy difference (ΔQ) for
a 10 K change in temperature:
a. 5.0 kg of water.
b. 3.5 g of copper.
c. An expanded polystyrene cup of mass 5.0 g.
d. A steel brake disc of mass 1.5 kg.

2. If you eat a fruit pastry fresh from a hot oven, the pastry may be
harmless while the fruit filling scalds your tongue. Use your ideas about
specific heat capacity to explain why.

3. The Sun delivers about 1 kW of power to a square metre of


the Earth when overhead at the equator. A parabolic mirror of
radius 1m is used to focus this energy onto a container of
water. Estimate the time taken by the mirror to raise 1 kg of
water to 100 °C. Comment on whether your answer is likely to
be an over or an underestimate.

4. Estimate how much energy is required to heat the air in your


physics laboratory from a chilly 10 °C to a more comfortable 20 °C.

5. You can put your hand in an oven at 200 C and even touch a baking
cake, without serious harm. But you must avoid touching anything in the
oven made from metal. Why is it not so harmful unless you touch metal?

6. In the middle of the nineteenth century, James Joule performed a great


series of experiments, which was part of the work leading to the law of
conservation of energy. One of them was on his honeymoon, when he
measured the temperature difference between water at the top and
bottom of a waterfall. If the waterfall was 100 m high, what maximum
temperature difference could Joule expect?

7. A power station needs to get


rid of energy at a rate of 800
MW and does so by warming up
a river that flows past it. If the river flow rate is 1100 m 3s–1,
how much warmer is the river downstream of the power
station? (density of water = 1000kgm-3)

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