Specific Heat

Not all the material absorbs heat at the same speed if the material have the same temperature change. For example, if water, iron, mercury, and gold in the same weight and same initial temperature,have temperature increase the same, each will absorb different amounts of heat. Unit called the specific heat is used to show the heat absorption capability. Specific heat of a substance is the amount of calories needed to raise the temperature of one gram of a substance by 1 degree centigrade.

In the case of water, needed just one calorie. Specific heat of water, therefore is 1, in addition to water, specific heat of other substances is always less than 1. Kind of heat for pure iron 0.11, 0.033 for mercury, and 0.0316 for gold.

To demonstrate the use of such units, let us look at some of the heat required to raise the temperature of 10 grams of copper to 50 degrees Celsius. Specific heat of copper is 0.09; means that 0.09 calories required to raise the temperature of 1 gram of copper to 1 degree Celsius. The amount of heat required to raise the temperature of 10 grams of copper to 50 degrees Celsius is 10x0, 09x50, or 45 calories.

Specific heat of a substance is usually determined by heating the temperature of a sample of the substance until a certain temperature and then incorporated into a number of water where the temperature is also known. The maximum rise in water temperature we note with caution, because the heat gained by water is equivalent to the heat given off by the sample material, then we can calculate the specific heat of that material.