Question

Wood has 4 times the heat capacity as steel. If I add the same amount of heat to the same amount of steel and wood, I find the temperature of the steel increases to 40°C. What is the temperature of the wood?

Answer 1

From thermodynamics:
\[\Delta T=\frac{Q}{mc}\]In this problem, Q and m are constant and delta T is 40 degrees. Looking at the equation you can see that the temperature change is inversely proportional to the mass (m) and the specific heat (c).

Knowing that, if the temperature change of the steel is 40 degrees and wood has 4 times the heat capacity (mc), then the temperature change of the wood will be \[\frac{1}{4}*40=10\]So 10 degrees.