Calculating Ice Cube Mass for Coffee Cooling - Question and Solution

[bcjochim07]

Homework Statement

Your 300 mL cup of coffee is too hot to drink when served at 90 degrees C. What is the mass of an ice cube, taken from a -20 degree C freezer, that will cool your coffee to 60 degrees C?

Homework Equations

The Attempt at a Solution

I'm pretty sure I can do this problem, but the only thing I am unsure of is what the specific heat of the coffee is. Should I assume that is the same as that of liquid water? Thanks

 

[mgb_phys]

Yes - there isn't much coffee in coffee and adding small amounts of solutes doesn't change the specific heat much, it does have a large effecton freezing/boiling points.

Remember to include the latent heat of the ice melting as well as the specific heat of ice heating upto 0!