Question 21N.1A.SL.TZ0.7
| Date | November 2021 | Marks available | [Maximum mark: 1] | Reference code | 21N.1A.SL.TZ0.7 |
| Level | SL | Paper | 1A | Time zone | TZ0 |
| Command term | Question number | 7 | Adapted from | N/A |
What is the benefit to living organisms that water has a high specific heat capacity?
A. Heat can be lost from the skin when sweat evaporates.
B. Aquatic environments do not have a great fluctuation in their temperature.
C. The amount of heat stored by water is highly predictable.
D. It allows water to be a solvent for chemical reactions at body temperature.
[1]
B
This was another question that few candidates were able to cope with, and two of the discriminators were more popular than the correct answer. One of the distractors revealed confusion between latent heat of vaporization and specific heat capacity, which is understandable. The other indicated faulty reasoning, probably due to insecure understanding of the consequences of water’s high specific heat capacity.
