Specific Heat Capacity

[Siena Bertacco 1G]

Hi, could someone reexplain what specific heat capacity is? I am having trouble grasping it. I am aware that to calculate it you divide the heat capacity by the amount of substance present but how is this information useful, conceptually?

[Reuben 1H]

Specific heat capacity is the amount of energy required to raise the temperature of 1g of a substance by 1ºC. Depending on how many grams you have, you can dictate how much energy is necessary to heat it and vice versa.

[Martha Tuna 1K]

Hi,

According to the textbook, specific heat capacity is "the heat capacity of a sample divided by its mass." Now, heat capacity is defined as "the ratio of heat supplied to the temperature produced." Heat capacity is an extensive property. This means the bigger the sample, the more heat that is required to raise its temperature by a given amount.

Also, a high heat capacity means that a given supply of heat produces only a small rise in temperature. On the other hand, a low heat capacity means that even a small transfer of energy as heat will produce a large rise in temperature.

Hope this helps!

[renee chowdhry 1A]

Specific heat capacity is dividing the heat capacity by the amount of substance present (grams), it is an intensive property. The molar heat capacity is the heat capacity divided by moles, which is also an intensive property. However, the heat capacity is an extensive property as it depends on the amount of substance, which is external.

[Tyler Ho 1L]

For application to thermodynamics problems, specific heat capacity is just how much energy it takes to raise one gram of a substance by one degree Celsius. For example, the specific heat of water is 4.184 J/g C. That being said, when 1g of water absorbs 4.184 Joules of energy, its temperature will increase by 1 degree Celsius. Given the other units, you can use the specific heat capacity to calculate whats missing, whether it be how much energy something absorbed, how many grams there are, or the change in temperature of a substance.

[cassidy_schmitt]

Specific Heat Capacity as mentioned in lecture is the heat required to raise the temperature of a specific substance (1 g) by 1 degree celsius. Lavelle also mentioned that we will see the term "specific heat" when it has the same meaning as "Specific Heat Capacity." The difference between Specific Heat Capacity (SHC) and Heat Capacity is that SHC is used in reference to a specific substance. Therefore the Heat Capacity is specific to that substance.

[Nishanth Vemuri 2L]

Specific heat capacity is defined as the amount of energy (or heat) required to raise 1 gram of a subtance by 1 degree celsius (or kelvin). This information is useful because if we are given the mass and amount of temperature we need to raise it by, we can do simple multiplication to get our answer. For example, if we need to raise 5 grams of a sample by 5 kelvin, we simply multiply the specific heat capacity by 25.

[Sophia Spallone 1A]

Specific heat capacity is defined as the heat required to raise the temperature of one gram of a substance by one degree Celsius. The heat capacity is the heat required to raise the temperature of some distinct amount of a substance by one degree Celsius.
Specific heat capacity is an intensive property, while heat capacity is an extensive property, which means that specific heat capacity does not depend on the amount of substance present, but heat capacity does.
If you know the specific heat capacity of a substance and the amount of substance you have, you can simply multiply the number of grams that you have by the specific heat capacity in order to know how much heat is needed to raise the temperature of that amount of substance by one degree Celsius. This is still possible if you know the heat capacity of some amount of this same substance, but it is a less straightforward process, as you must first find the specific heat capacity from the heat capacity.