SPECIFIC
HEAT CAPACITY AND SPECIFIC LATENT HEAT
1 Jafar is using the below setup to heat a steel cylinder of mass 1.6 kg. The initial
temperature of the steel used was 20 °C.
(a) The reading on the joulemeter was observed to be 48 kJ after four minutes.
Calculate the power which was delivered to the immersion heater. Remember
that 1 W = 1 J/s.
(2)
Power = .................... W
(b) Define what is meant by the specific heat capacity of a material.
(2)
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(c) The specific heat capacity of the steel used was 500 J/kg °C. Estimate what
the temperature of the steel would have been after it had been heated for four
minutes.
(2)
Temperature = .................... °C
(d) When Jafar actually performed the experiment he measured a temperature
lower than that which is estimated from the calculation of the previous
question. Explain why.
(2)
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SPECIFIC HEAT CAPACITY AND SPECIFIC LATENT HEAT
2 A small amount of freezing water is placed into a saucepan before being heated on a
gas stove. The below graph shows how the temperature of the water changes with time.
120
100
Temperature (°C)
80
60
40
20
0
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60
Amount of heat energy supplied to water (kJ)
(a) Show that 100 g of water is being heated in the saucepan.
The specific heat capacity of water is 4200 J/kg °C. You may assume that the
amount of energy lost by the water while it is being heated is negligible.
(3)
(b) Describe and explain the variation in the temperature of the water when the
amount of heat energy supplied to it goes above 42 kJ.
(3)
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(c) Determine the total amount of energy required to evaporate this entire mass of
water from an initial temperature of 100 °C.
6
The specific latent heat of vaporisation of water is 2.5 × 10 J/kg.
(2)
Energy = .......................... J
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SPECIFIC HEAT CAPACITY AND SPECIFIC LATENT HEAT
3 Niloufar heated a sample of ice and measured how its temperature changed over a
period of ten minutes. Her results are as shown below.
Time (minutes) 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Temperature (°C) -6 -4 -2 0 0 0 0 1 2 3 4
(a) Plot a line graph of her results using the below axes.
(2)
1
Temperature (°C)
0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
-1
-2
-3
-4
-5
-6
Time (minutes)
(b) Describe how the temperature of the sample changed during the experiment.
(3)
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(c) Explain the reason for the flat section in the middle of the above graph.
(2)
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(d) Suggest why the temperature of the ice increased more quickly than that of
the liquid water.
(1)
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SPECIFIC HEAT CAPACITY AND SPECIFIC LATENT HEAT
4 Alice used the below setup to measure the specific heat capacity of liquid water.
The measurements which she took were as follows.
Initial joulemeter reading 100 J
Final joulemeter reading 8500 J
Mass of water 200 g
Increase in temperature of water 10 °C
(a) Use this information to show that the specific heat capacity of water is
approximately 4200 J/kg °C.
(3)
(b) Alice removed the lid on the polystyrene cup and repeated the experiment.
She obtained a new value of 4900 J/kg °C for the specific heat capacity of
water.
Explain why this value is higher than the value which she calculated initially
with the lid in place.
(2)
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