What is Specific Heat? How is specific heat determined?
Specific heat, Csp, is the amount of heat required to change the heat content of exactly 1 gram of a material by exactly 1°C.
Specific heat values can be determined in the following way: When two materials, each initially at a different temperature, are placed in contact with one another, heat always flows from the warmer material into the colder material until both the materials attain the same temperature. From the law of conservation of energy, the heat gained by the initially colder material must equal the heat lost by the initially warmer material.
We know that when heat energy is absorbed by a substance, its temperature increases. If the same quantity of heat is given to equal masses of different substances, it is observed that the rise in temperature for each substance is different. This is due to the fact that different substances have different heat capacities. So heat capacity of a substance is the quantity of the heat required to raise the temperature of the whole substance by one degree. If the mass of the substance is unity then the heat capacity is called Specific heat capacity or the specific heat.
Specific heat, Csp, is the amount of heat required to change the heat content of exactly 1 gram of a material by exactly 1°C.
Specific heat values can be determined in the following way: When two materials, each initially at a different temperature, are placed in contact with one another, heat always flows from the warmer material into the colder material until both the materials attain the same temperature. From the law of conservation of energy, the heat gained by the initially colder material must equal the heat lost by the initially warmer material.
We know that when heat energy is absorbed by a substance, its temperature increases. If the same quantity of heat is given to equal masses of different substances, it is observed that the rise in temperature for each substance is different. This is due to the fact that different substances have different heat capacities. So heat capacity of a substance is the quantity of the heat required to raise the temperature of the whole substance by one degree. If the mass of the substance is unity then the heat capacity is called Specific heat capacity or the specific heat.
