Specific Heat Capacity - Conceptual only

Specific Heat Capacity- conceptual

By Tania Murphy

High Heat Capacity
- substance can absorb a lot of heat without its temperature going up too high

OR
- temperature changes slightly with addition or removal of heat

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​let's first talk about "heat capacity"

Low Heat Capacity
- substance absorbs a little bit of heat and temperature goes up a lot

OR
- temperature changes easily with addition or removal of heat

Let's now go from "heat capacity" to "specific heat"

​"Heat capacity" is a more broad concept than "specific heat" capacity

Heat capacity involves heat gained per mole of a substance

Specific heat capacity involves heat gained per gram of a substance

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When discussing an objects specific heat capacity your are referring to the amount of ​

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that must be gained or removed to change the ​

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of a substance ​

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Celsius or Kelvin. The higher the specific heat capacity the ​

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of heat that must be gained to raise the temp and the lower the heat capacity the ​

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of heat that must be gained to raise the temperature.

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energy

temperature

one degree

greater the amount

smaller the amount

​Every substance has its own specific heat value.
Notice, water has a particularly high specific heat capacity compared to the copper and aluminum metals.

​notice the mass unit has changed to kg - no big deal, just have to pay attention.

Once again, you can see that water has a particularly high specific heat. This is a good property of water.

Water's high heat capacity is important for all life on Earth. Water regulates the climate of geographical regions, preventing drastic temperature swings between night and day, and throughout changing seasons. This protects organisms sensitive to temperature change.

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​It takes less energy to raise the temperature of a small mass of water compared

It takes more energy to raise the temperature of a large mass of water

mass and energy required to raise the temperature are directly related

​metal spoon and wooden spoon gain same amount of energy

metal spoon = large temperature change

wooden spoon = small temperature change

metal spoon = low specific heat

wooden spoon = high specific heat

temperature change and specific heat are indirectly related (assuming all other variables constant)

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I add 1000 J of heat to substance A and the temperature goes up 1 degree Celsius. I add 1000 J of heat to substance B and the temperature goes up 10 degrees Celsius. Both objects gained the ​

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of energy however, substance A had ​ a ​

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temperature change and substance B had a ​ ​

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temperature change. Therefore, substance A has a ​

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specific heat and substance B has a ​

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specific heat.

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same amount

lower

greater

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Two objects of the same mass are heated. Object A has a specific heat of 0.100J/gC and object B has a specific heat of 0.200J/gC. We can infer that object ​

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will heat up more quickly and object ​

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will heat up less quickly. If equal amounts of heat are gained by both object A and object B then the change in temperature of object A will be ​

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of object B. I know this because object A has a ​

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which means it requires ​

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to raise the temperature of one gram one degree Celsius.

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A

B

greater than that

lesser than that

lower specific heat

less energy

higher specific heat 

more energy

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A metal ball, X, with a mass of 100 g is heated to 90°C and then cooled to 25°C. The heat lost in the process is 2.5 kJ. Another metal ball, Y, with a mass of 100 g is heated to 90°C and then cooled to 25°C. The heat lost in the process is 5.0 kJ. The mass of the second metal is ​

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that of the first metal. The temperature change of the first metal is ​equal to that of the ​

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. The amount of heat lost by the first metal is ​

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of the second metal. Thus, we can conclude that first metal gained ​

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than the second metal and the specific heat of the first metal is ​

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than that of the second metal.

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the same as

second metal

half of that

less heat

lower

more heat 

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Imagine adding 2000 Joules of heat to 1 gram of water and adding 2000 Joules of heat to 100 grams of water . Both samples of water gained the ​

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of heat however the water with the lower mass will see a ​

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and the water with the greater mass will see a ​

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same amount

greater temperature change

smaller temperature change

most amount 

least amount

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A metal ball, X, with a mass of 100 g is heated to 90°C and then cooled to 25°C. The heat lost in the process is 2.5 kJ. Another metal ball, Y, with a mass of 100 g is heated to 90°C and then cooled to 25°C. The heat lost in the process is 5.0 kJ. The mass of both metals is ​ ​

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, the temperature change of metal X is equal to that of ​

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. Metal X lost ​

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than metal Y. Thus, one can conclude that metal Y has a ​

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than metal X.

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the same

metal Y

less energy

higher specific heat

lower specific heat 

more energy