How Much Will a Thrown Frozen Chicken Warm Up?

[defyingravity0]

Homework Statement

You decide to throw a frozen chicken out of a 20 m high window. How much do you expect the chicken to warm up by, assuming all of the potential energy converts to thermal energy. Treat the chicken having a specific heat of 4186 J/kg ∙ K.

Relevant Equations

PE= mgh
Q= mc delta T

Problem Statement: You decide to throw a frozen chicken out of a 20 m high window. How much do you expect the chicken to warm up by, assuming all of the potential energy converts to thermal energy. Treat the chicken having a specific heat of 4186 J/kg ∙ K.
Relevant Equations: PE= mgh
Q= mc delta T

the options are

0.047 C°

0.071 C°

0.053 C°

Need the mass of the chicken to solveI am leaning towards the last because without the mass how do I go about finding potential energy or even finding the original amount of heat

 

[Orodruin]

I am leaning towards the last because without the mass how do I go about finding potential energy or even finding the original amount of heat

I suggest you first try to find an expression for the change in temperature without using specific values for any of the parameters. What does that lead you to?

 

[PeroK]

Problem Statement: You decide to throw a frozen chicken out of a 20 m high window. How much do you expect the chicken to warm up by, assuming all of the potential energy converts to thermal energy. Treat the chicken having a specific heat of 4186 J/kg ∙ K.
Relevant Equations: PE= mgh
Q= mc delta T

Problem Statement: You decide to throw a frozen chicken out of a 20 m high window. How much do you expect the chicken to warm up by, assuming all of the potential energy converts to thermal energy. Treat the chicken having a specific heat of 4186 J/kg ∙ K.
Relevant Equations: PE= mgh
Q= mc delta T

the options are

0.047 C°

0.071 C°

0.053 C°

Need the mass of the chicken to solveI am leaning towards the last because without the mass how do I go about finding potential energy or even finding the original amount of heat

I think you should suggest to whomever set this question that they go buy an oven.

 

[Orodruin]

I think you should suggest to whomever set this question that they go buy an oven.

Recipe:
...
5. Drop chicken from 20 m 200 times.
...

I call this dish "Chicken a la asphalt".

 

[haruspex]

Recipe:
...
5. Drop chicken from 20 m 200 times.
...

I call this dish "Chicken a la asphalt".

Poulet tombé, maybe?

 

[haruspex]

without the mass how do I go about finding potential energy

Would the answer be different if you were to throw two chickens?

 

[kuruman]

This problem is an example of a problem that is "cute" by design in order to arouse interest, but the number of assumptions needed to choose one of the answers can be large. Here are just a few but I am sure there are more.
1. We ignore air resistance as usual.
2. The rise in temperature is distributed equally and without heat loss from the point of impact to the entire mass of the chicken.
3. No part of the chicken undergoes a local phase transition from solid to liquid.
4. The energy transferred to the pavement is negligible.

I will forgo the humorous assumptions. I should also point out that, according to the specific heat of food and foodstuff table, the relevant specific heats are around 1500 J/kg ^oC for frozen chicken and about twice that for thawed chicken. Both numbers are significantly below the purported value of about 4200 J/kg ^oC which matches that of liquid water.

 

[sojsail]

I recommend the advice in post #2. So that means to develop an expression for delta T in terms of m, g, h, and c.