I'm trying to rank the maximum temperatures of water at 20 degrees Celsius after adding in heated copper cylinders. The first case is 1 cylinder at 22.5 degrees Celsius. Second is two cylinders at 25 degrees Celsius. Third is 3 cylinders at 25 degrees Celsius. Lastly, 1 cylinder at 15 degrees Celsius. This is the Think and Rank #21 from Chapter 21 of Paul Hewitt's Conceptual Physics book. I'm confused on what I need to solve this, like specific heat capacity or what.

Answer 1

Three cylinders at 25 C will add more heat to the water than two at the same temperature.

Two cylinders at 25 C will add more heat to the water than one cylinder at 22.5 C.

Finally, the 1 cylinder at 15 C will cool the water.

(Remember that the water starts out at 20 C)

That brief bit of logic should make the ranking easy. You don't have to do the numbers. That is why they call it a conceptual physics clAss.