Question

A 15.7g block of an unknown metal is warmed to 53.2o C and plunged into an insulated beaker containing 32.5g of water initially at 24.5o C. The metal block and water are allowed to come to thermal equilibrium and the final temperature of the system is 27.2oC. Assuming that no heat is lost, find the specific heat of the mystery metal block and specify the identity of the metal.
[mass metal x specific heat metal x (Tfinal-Tinitial)] +[ mass H2O x specific heat H2O x (Tfinal-Tinitial)] = 0. Substitute the numbers.
[15.7 x specific heat metal x (27.2 - 53.2)] + [32.5 x 4.184 x (27.2-24.5)] = 0
Solve for specific heat metal, then look up specific heats in a table to identify the unknown metal. You text or notes or the web will have tables of metals along with their specific heats.
Post your work if you get stuck. One of my gripes about so-called modern courses in chemistry is that there is no chemistry in a question like this but then I'm just an old codger having trouble moving to the "modern world".

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