relationship between heat capacity and heating curve

[Clarice Chui 2C]

The book says that the steeper the slope on a heating curve, the lower is the heat capacity. I'm having trouble understanding this concept, so can someone please explain it? Thanks!

[charleejohnson1L]

Consider it the inverse of the slope, and it'll be easy to remember. The logic behind it is a little tough for me, too, so I hope someone can answer that! :)

[Kevin Xu 4F]

The slope of a heating curve represents the rise/run, in this case the change in temperature over the change in energy as heat. The heat capacity of a substance is equal to the change in enthalpy (heat) divided by the change in temperature. Thus, the heat capacity is inversely related to the slope of the heating curve. If the slope of the heating curve increases (is steeper), then the heat capacity is lower. If the slope of the heating curve decreases( is less steep), then the heat capacity is higher.

Conceptually speaking, the heat capacity represents the amount of heat needed to raise one temperature in Celsius. Thus, if the curve is steeper, that means that less energy as heat is needed to raise the temperature, and so the heat capacity of that substance is lower.

[Samuel G Rivera - Discussion 4I]

So if you take the heating curve, you have Q on the x axis and temperature of a substance on the y axis. If you add a little bit of heat energy (Q) and the temperature increases a lot, then the slope will be steep. This means that the substance has a low heat capacity because it did not take much heat energy to increase the temperature.

[Alexandra Bartolome 2H]

For a heating curve, q is on the x axis and the temperature is on the y axis. When you have a steep slope, this means that for smaller increases in q (heat), there are larger increases in temperature, which correlates to a lower heat capacity. When you have a more flat slope, for larger increases in q, there are smaller increases in temperature, which correlates to a higher heat capacity.

[Celine 1F]

On the heating curve, the x axis has q and the y axis has temperature. If the graph has a steep slope, this means there is a small increase in q and a bigger increase in temperature, which means the substance has a low heat capacity.

[Nikki Razal 1L]

substances with a lower heat capacity are easier to heat up, so the change in temperature is more extreme after the same period of time taken to heat up a substance with a higher heat capacity. as a result, the heating curve is steeper for a substance with a low heat capacity