Calorimetry Problem - Find Specific Heat of Liquid

[Jacob G]

If anyone could possibly help me and explain how to do this problem it would be much appreciated..

A 50g copper mass is heated by placing it in boiling water. It is then placed in a beaker containing 250g of an unknown liquid at 20C. The final temperature of the weight and liquid is found to be 25C. What is the specific heat of the liquid? (Assume no heat is lost to the surroundings.)

Thanks..

 

[HallsofIvy]

That looks like a homework problem to me! You know the initial temperature of the copper mass and you know its mass and can look up its specific heat. That allows you to calculate the amount of heat energy in the mass before it was put in the lquid. Knowing that its final temperature was 25 C, you can do the same thing to find the final amount of hear energy in the mass. The difference is the energy transferred to the liquid. Again, you know the initial and final temperatures of the liquid as well as its mass so you can write down the initial and final amounts of heat energy in the liquid. Set their difference equal to the heat energy transferred from the copper to the liquid and solve for the specific heat.