Heat Capacity

[Frances Relampagos 1J]

How do you differentiate which heat capacity to use in a problem?

[Elizabeth Hoang 2C]

I believe that if you are given mass or the number of moles in a problem, you should use the specific heat capacity (J x K^-1 x g^-1). Deciding which of the two equations to use (q = (heat capacity)(delta T) or q = (moles or grams)(specific heat capacity)(delta T)) can also help you determine which heat capacity to use.

[Cecilia Tsai 3C]

Hi!
As Elizabeth said above, solving for heat capacity is very different since each problem varies upon what details it gives you. To better explain, since I don't want to chop up the words,

http://chemwiki.ucdavis.edu/Physical_Chemistry/Thermodynamics/Calorimetry/Heat_Capacity

this website will help very much as it did for me!

Good luck this quarter,
Cecilia