Molar Heat Capacity

[Angela Hung 1H]

Hello,

I am having a little bit of trouble understanding this statement in the textbook: "The molar heat capacity of an ideal gas at constant pressure is greater than that at constant volume." Can someone please explain why this is to me?

Thanks!

[Sydney Nguyen 1K]

This simply means that for an ideal gas at constant pressure, it takes more heat to achieve the same temperature change than it does at constant volume. At constant volume, all the heat added goes into raising the temperature. At constant pressure, some of the heat goes to doing work.