The specific heats of two natural substances are shown.

Wet mud 2.5 J/g Celsius Sandy clay 1.4 J/g Celsius.

A pile of wet mud and a pile of sandy clay of equal masses were placed next to each other on a sunny day.

If the temperature of each pile was equal in the afternoon, which substance is likely to show a higher temperature after a few hours and why?

Options:

Wet mud, because it released more heat while placed in the sun.

Sandy clay, because it absorbed more heat while placed in the sun.

Sandy clay, because it requires less energy to increase its temperature.

Wet mud, because it requires more energy to increase its temperature.

Sandy clay, because it requires less energy to increase its temperature

Explanation:

Let's define specific heat capacity in order to understand the context of this problem. Specific heat capacity is defined as the amount of heat required to raise the temperature of 1 g of substance by 1 degree.

Notice that wet mud has a higher specific capacity than sandy clay. Based on the definition of specific heat capacity, this implies that wet mud requires a greater amount of heat to increase 1 g of its temperature by 1 degree as opposed to sandy clay which requires a lower amount of heat.

Equal masses were used and the same amount of heat was absorbed by each substance.

This means sandy clay would exhibit a greater temperature, as its specific heat is lower.