How to figure out the amount of heat (joules) needed to melt 1g of ice?

wasteofo2

So, first day of school today, and I'm in honors chemistry. I got a packet with refernce tables etc. and a homework assignment designed just to get you to use the tables and be able to connect one thing they say with another. Anyway, one question is "How much heat is required to melt 1g of ice?" I'm guessing by "how much", it's indicating that joules would be the proper unit to answer in, and the tables say that water has a specific heat capacity of 4.18 J/g times degrees celcius. My initial guess would just be 4.18 joules, but I've no real idea, can anyone explain how I'd go about figuring this out?

Tide

Don't forget the latent heat of fusion.

wasteofo2

Uhh...
Dude, I'm a junior in highschool, besides learning the formulas for respiration and photosynthesis last year in bio, I have no real experience in chemistry at all, you completely lost me...

Tide

You said you got a packet with reference tables. Take a look and see if it has something called "latent heat of fusion."

Basically, it takes energy to melt ice and while the transition between solid and liquid is taking place the temperature remains constant. That energy is called the heat of fusion.

If that still doesn't help then maybe your teacher is only trying to see how much you know about chemistry by giving problems ranging from simple to advanced.

wasteofo2

Alright...

It shows that with water, the heat of fusion is 334J/g, so that's the answer?

Tide

Multiply that number by 1 g and you get 334 Joules. :-)