Assume you are performing the calibration step of Experiment 8 and you begin with 50 g of water at 20 oC and 50 g of water at 80 oC. After adding the two portions of water into your calorimeter setup and following the procedure outlined in the experiment, you determine the temperature of the mixed portions of water to be 45 oC. What is the heat capacity of the calorimeter?

2 answers

heat gained by cold water + heat gained by calorimeter = heat lost by hot water.

Calculate heat lost by hot water.
q = mass x specific heat x (Tfinal-Tinitial)

Calculate heat gained by cold water.
q = mass x specific heat x (Tfinal-Tinitial)

The difference is the heat gained by the calorimeter. heat capacity = delta H/delta T.
20