A piece of aluminum at 81.9°C is placed in a calorimeter containing 75.0 grams of water at 24.9°C. If the temperature at equilibrium is 28.3°C, what is the mass of the aluminum?
Expert Answer
First, let us define the heat baalance:
Qgain = -Qlost
Qgain = water
Qlost = aluminium
now, get heat equations
Qwater = mwater*Cwater*(Tf-Twater)
Qmetal = mmetal * Cmetal ( Tf-Tmetal)
now; substitute
mwater*Cwater*(Tf-Twater) = – mmetal * Cmetal ( Tf-Tmetal)
substitute known data
75*4.184*(28.3-24.9) = -mmetal * 0.9 * (28.3-81.9)
solve for mmetal
1,066.92 = 48.24*mmetal
m metal = 1,066.92/ 48.24
m metal = 22.1169 g of aluminium was used