On Friday, November 1, 1996 at 12:00:00 AM UTC-8, Dogbert wrote:   
   > Are negative specific heats possible?   
   >   
   > For some reason I thought that specific heats could only be positive.   
   > Here is a problem I am solving.  I got a number for the specific heat   
   > but it turned out negative.   
   >   
   > A 250 gram sample of metal shot is heated to a temperature of 98 C.   
   > It is placed in 100 grams of water in a brass calorimeter cup with a   
   > brass stirrer.  The total mass of the cup and the stirrer is 50 grams.   
   > the initial teperature of the water, stirrer, and calorimeter is 20 C.   
   > The final equilibrium temperature of the system is 30 C.  What is the   
   > specific heat of the metal sample?  (the specific heat of brass is   
   > 092 cal/g*C.   
   >   
   > this is what I got:   
   > 250g*c*(30-98)=50g(1)(30-20)+50g(.092)(30-20)   
   > mc(delta t)of metal= mc(delta)t of water+mc(delta t) of cup and   
   > stirrer   
   > answer=    -.0321cal/g*C for metal   
   >   
   > Thanks for any help you can give,   
   > Joy   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)