Specific Heat and Heat Capacity Specific heat is another physical property of matter.

All matter has a temperature associated with it. The temperature of matter is a direct measure of the motion of the molecules: The greater the motion the higher the temperature:

Motion requires energy: The more energy matter has the higher temperature it will also have. Typicall this energy is supplied by heat. Heat loss or gain by matter is equivalent energy loss or gain. With the observation above understood we con now as the following question: by how much will the temperature of an ob!ect increase or decrease by the gain or loss of heat energy" The answer is given by the specific heat #S$ of the ob!ect. The specific heat of an ob!ect is defined in the following way: Ta e an ob!ect of mass m% put in & amount of heat and carefully note the temperature rise% then S is given by

'n this definition mass is usually in either grams or ilograms and temperature is either in elvin or degrees (elsius. )ote that the specific heat is *per unit mass*. Thus% the specific heat of a gallon of mil is equal to the specific heat of a quart of mil . A related quantity is called the heat capacity #($. of an ob!ect. The relation between S and ( is ( + #mass of ob!ect$ & #specific heat of ob!ect$. A table of some common specific heats and heat capacities is given below:
Some common specific heats and heat capacities: Substance S ( #,-g.( #,-.($

$ Air (opper 5old 'ron Mercury )a(l 'ce Water /../

for /.. g /./

Aluminum ..0.1 0..1 ..234 23.4 ../10 /1.0 ..64. 64.. ../6. /6.. ..376 37.6 1...2 1.2 6./80 6/.80

(onsider the specific heat of copper % ..234 ,-g .(. What this means is that it ta es ..234 ,oules of heat to raise / gram of copper / degree (elsius. Thus% if we ta e / gram of copper at 14 .( and add / ,oule of heat to it% we will find that the temperature of the copper will have risen to 17 .(. We can then as : How much heat will it ta e to raise by / .( 1g of copper". (learly the answer is ..234 , for each gram or 1&..234 , + ..88. ,. What about a pound of copper" A simple way of dealing with different masses of matter is to determine the heat capacity ( as defined above. )ote that ( depends upon the si9e of the ob!ect as opposed to S that does not. We are not in position to do some calculations with S and (. Example 1: How much energy does it ta e to raise the temperature of 4. g of copper by /. .("

Example 2: 'f we add 2. , of heat to /. g of aluminum% by how much will its temperature increase"

Thus% if the initial temperature of the aluminum was 1. .( then after the heat is added the temperature will be 13.2 .(.