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Fizzicist
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Homework Statement
You pour 108 cm^3 of ethanol, at a temperature of -10.0 degrees C, into a graduated cylinder initially at 20.0 degrees C, filling it to the very top. The cylinder is made of glass with a specific heat of 840 J/(kg *K) and a coefficient of volume expansion of 1.2 *10^-5 K^-1; its mass is 0.110 kg. The mass of the ethanol is 0.0873 kg.
A. What will be the final temperature of the ethanol, once thermal equilibrium is reached?
(Answer: -.892 degrees C)
B. How much ethanol will overflow the cylinder before thermal equilibrium is reached?
Homework Equations
Equation for volumetric expansion:
[tex]\Delta[/tex]V = [tex]\beta[/tex] V0 ([tex]\Delta[/tex]T)
The Attempt at a Solution
I honestly think this question (part B) is flawed. How could you solve this without knowing V0, the initial volume of the cylinder? And even if you did know the volume of the cylinder, you still wouldn't be able to determine the volume capacity it is able to hold (the ratio of volume capacity to volume of the cylinder varies). Is this even possible?
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