The specific heat of alcohol is about half that of water. Suppose you have identical masses of alcohol and water. The alcohol is initially at temperature T A . The water is initially at a different

Question

The specific heat of alcohol is about half that of water. Suppose you have identical masses of alcohol and water. The alcohol is initially at temperature T A ​ . The water is initially at a different temperature T W ​ . Now the two fluids are mixed in the same container and allowed to come into thermal equilibrium, with no loss of heat to the surroundings. The final temperature of the mixture will be

TestHub · Accepted Answer

No heat is lost, so heat lost = heat gained:
$m S_{A} Δ T_{A} = m S_{W} Δ T_{W}$
Alcohol has the lower specific heat:
$S_{A} < S_{W}$
$Δ T_{A} > Δ T_{W}$
Alcohol changes temperature more, so the final temperature is closer to $T_{W}$ .

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