The temperature rise of the cylinder is produced by mechanical work, and we now calculate
the heat that would produce the same temperature rise. The specific heat c of a substance
is defined as the heat Q added to unit mass of the substance that will raise the temperature
one degree. In SI units the units of c are J/kg · K, where J is joules, kg is kilograms, and
K is degrees Kelvin. The units of c used in this experiment are cal/g · deg C. Let Ti and Tf
be the initial and final temperatures of the cylinder and let m be the mass of the cylinder
in grams. The heat Q that will give the temperature rise is
The cylinder used is aluminum which has a specific heat of 0.220 cal/g · deg C, about 1/5
that of water.