Question: Why the specific heat of water increases when the temperature gets higher?

The specific heat of water is defined as the amount of heat/thermal energy required to raise the
temperature of a unit mass of water by a unit Kelvin. This relationship also applies to other
substances as well. Temperature, on the other hand, can be defined as a measure of the average
kinetic energy of atomic particles within an element or material, in this case, water.
Let the water be the system in view. At cold room temperature, the particles within the system
don’t have enough kinetic energy from their collisions. The particles are in a “frozen” state.
When heat is transferred into the system, the heat energy is converted into kinetic energy,
causing the particles to increase their velocities and kinetic energy. This increase causes the
average temperature of the system to grow. This also affects the internal energy of the system as
the increase in kinetic energy causes the collisions between the particles to be able to impart
more energy, causes the internal energy to increase. The increase in the internal energy causes
the molar specific heat to grow as well.

The average translational kinetic energy of a monoatomic fluid is dependent on its temperature,
and it is represented by the equation:
3
K.Eavg = kT , where Kavg is the average kinetic energy, T is the temperature, and k is the
2
Boltzmann constant, 1.38 x 10-23 J/K.

LITERATURE REVIEW

BOOK NAME AUTHOR CHAPTER/PAGE CONTENT

Fundamentals of Haliday and Resnick
Physics

References
 Fundamentals of Physics Haliday and Resnick
(b) If we plan to converted the radiation from the Sun as electricity output (e.g.,
photovoltaic cells), what is the theoretical limit of the energy conversion efficiency
(i.e., radiative energy to electrical energy) based the second law?