test2

A side-by-side plot comparing two ways to calculate heat (q). The left plot, 'Integral Method', shows a shaded area under a smooth curve, along with small black dots representing the source data. The right plot, 'Constant cp Method', shows a shaded rectangle. Both plots display the correct, calculated value for q.
Figure 1: A comparison of two methods for calculating the heat transferred from a 55.0 g piece of iron as it cools from 99.8 °C to 23.0 °C. The left panel shows the rigorous integral method, with the discrete data points used to generate the curve. The right panel shows the common algebraic approximation using a constant specific heat capacity.