Specific Heat Capacity

If equal masses of water and paraffin are heated for the same time by an identical heater (so both receive the same heat energy), paraffin's temperature rises roughly twice as much as water's. This shows that different substances need different amounts of heat to raise the SAME mass by the SAME one-degree temperature change -- a substance-specific property called specific heat capacity. This section defines specific and molar heat capacity for solids and liquids, explains why gases need TWO distinct specific heats, states the general heat equation relating heat, mass, specific heat and temperature change, and defines he …