Specific Heat Capacity vs Heat Capacity
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Specific Heat Capacity vs Heat Capacity
Can someone explain the difference between heat capacity and specific heat - I was a little confused by the book's explanation and somewhere it says the energy needed to raise "one unit mass" of a substance by 1 degree celsius. Could someone explain the difference between the two terms then using "one unit mass" and also using water as an example of reference?
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Re: Specific Heat Capacity vs Heat Capacity
Basically, if we're talking about water, heat capacity is just the energy required to raise water by 1 degree. Specific heat is the energy required to raise water of some mass by 1 degree. So the relationship would be heat capacity = specific heat * mass.
The heat capacity of water would be different when looking at 100 grams vs 200 grams of water. However, specific heat capacity would be the same between 100 grams and 200 grams of water.
The heat capacity of water would be different when looking at 100 grams vs 200 grams of water. However, specific heat capacity would be the same between 100 grams and 200 grams of water.
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Re: Specific Heat Capacity vs Heat Capacity
Specific heat capacity is always constant for each respective substance, regardless of the mass present. Heat capacity on the other hand differs depending on the mass of the substance present.
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Re: Specific Heat Capacity vs Heat Capacity
Heat capacity is the amount of heat required to raise the temperature of an object by 1 degrees Celsius. However, the amount of heat required depends on the amount of substance. This means that heat capacity is an extensive property and would change based on how much of the substance you have. Specific heat capacity, on the other hand, is an intensive property. It represents the amount of heat required to raise the temperature of 1gram of substance by 1 degrees Celsius.
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Re: Specific Heat Capacity vs Heat Capacity
The way I understand it is that specific heat is to change the temperature of the substance by 1 degrees and specific heat capacity is to change 1 gram of the substance by 1 degrees.
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Re: Specific Heat Capacity vs Heat Capacity
Heat capacity doesn’t take into account how much of a substance is there. It doesn’t include grams or moles
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