Specific heat capacity

Specific Heat Capacity

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Specific heat capacity (c) refers to how well a substance stores heat.

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It is the amount of energy needed to raise the temperature of 1 kg of a substance by 1°C.

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This depends on the material of the substance, its mass, and the energy added. The formula for calculating the change in thermal energy is: change in thermal energy = mass × specific heat capacity × temperature change

\Delta E = m \times c \times \Delta \theta

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Where ∆E is the change in thermal energy, in joules J, specific heat capacity, c in joules per kilogram per degree Celcius $Jkg−1^°C−1$ , mass m in kilograms kg and temperature change ∆T in degrees Celcius °C.

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Rearranged Formula:

\Delta E = {m \times c \times\Delta \theta}

c = \frac{\Delta E}{m \times \Delta \theta}

Key Points

Heating a substance increases its internal energy, which is the energy in its thermal store or the kinetic energy of its particles.
In kinetic theory, temperature measures the average internal energy of the particles in a substance.
Materials that require a lot of energy to heat up also release a lot of energy when they cool down.
The temperature change of a substance is related to its specific heat capacity, which is the energy needed to raise the temperature of 1 kg of a substance by 1°C.

Finding the specific heat capacity of water/liquid

Use a balance to measure the mass of the insulating container
Set up an experiment (make sure joule metre reads zero & place a lid on the container)
Measure the temp of the water then turn on the power
Watch the thermometer as when it has increased by (e.g.. 10°C) stop the experiment and record the energy on the joule metre and increase in temperature
You can then calculate the specific heat capacity of the water by rearranging the equation (do the experiment 3 times to get an average specific heat capacity)

Specific heat capacity Simplified Revision Notes for GCSE Edexcel Physics Combined Science

Specific heat capacity

Specific Heat Capacity

Finding the specific heat capacity of water/liquid

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