PHYSICS 3

FIS 0124
Chapter 2
Thermal Properties
Introduction

When it is cold, warm clothes act as insulators to reduce heat loss from the body to the
environment by conduction and convection. Heat radiation from a campfire can warm you
and your clothes. The fire can also transfer energy directly by conduction and convection
to what you are cooking. We begin by defining and using the concept of heat and
discuss how heat is used in calorimeter, how it is involved in changes of state of
matter, and the processes of heat transfer.
Introduction

What happen if you put a cold spoon into a cup

of hot coffee ?
The spoon warms up and the coffee cools down as they
approach thermal equilibrium.
Transfer of energy from warmer object to the cooler one.
Energy transferred in this way called Heat.
Heat, Q

Energy transferred from one system to another

because of temperature difference.
Unit of heat: calorie (cal) or joule (J)

1 = 4.186
1 = 1000 = 4186

SI unit of heat : Joule (J)

(This is the basic unit of energy in all forms, including heat)
Equivalence of Mechanical Energy and
Heat Energy by James Joule
Quantity of heat, Q

If a quantity of heat energy, Q is transferred to substance

of mass m, changing its temperature by T= Tf Ti, we
find a proportionality relationship that;

Putting all these relationships together, we have

=
c = specific heat of material, J/kg.K or cal/g.C
Specific Heat, c

Specific heat - amount of energy required to raise the

temperature of 1kg of any pure substance by 1K.
The specific heat value varies with the substances.
Example:
The specific heat of water is approximately 4190 J/kg.K
The specific heat of copper is approximately 390 J/kg.K
Q and T can be either positive or negative.
Positive heat enters the body and its temperature increases
Negative heat leaves the body and its temperature decreases
Question 1

During a bout with the flu, an 80kg man ran a fever of

39C instead of the normal temperature 37C. Assuming
that the human body is mostly water, how much heat is
required to raise his temperature by that amount? Given
that cwater = 4190 J/kg.K

Convert the answer from J to kcal.

Question 2

You are designing an electronic circuit element made of

23mg of silicon. The electric current through it adds
energy at the rate of 7.4 103 . If your design
doesnt allow any heat transfer out of the element, at
what rate does its temperature increase? The specific
heat of silicon is 705 . .
Express answer in unit .
Molar Heat Capacity, C

Sometimes its more convenient to describe a quantity of

substance in term of number of moles, n rather than
mass, m of material.
Recall that a mole of any pure substance always
contains the same number of molecules.

1 = 6.02 1023

The total mass, m of material is equal to the mass per

mole, M (molar mass) times the number of moles, n

=
Molar Heat Capacity, C

Replacing m=nM into heat equation, we find

Q mcT
Q nCT
Q nMcT
where product of Mc is called the Molar heat capacity denoted by C.

Molar Heat Capacity - amount of energy required to raise the

temperature of 1mole of any pure substance by 1K.

Exp: The molar heat capacity of water is 75.4 J/mol.K

The molar heat capacity of copper is 24.8 J/mol.K
Approximate Specific Heats, c and Molar Heat
Capacities, C of some substances near 20C

Molar heat
Specific heat, c Molar Mass, M
Substances capacity, C
(J/kg.K) (kg/mol)
(J/mol.K)
Aluminium 910 0.0270 24.6
Copper 390 0.0635 24.8
Ethanol 2428 0.0461 111.9
Ice 2100 0.0180 37.8
Iron 470 0.0559 26.3
Mercury 138 0.201 27.7
Silver 234 0.108 25.3
Water 4190 0.018 75.4
Approximate Specific Heats, c and Molar Heat
Capacities, C of some substances
The specific heat is defined as the amount of energy required to put
into one kilogram of a substance in order to raise the temperature of
substance by one kelvin. (J/kg.K)

Water has much higher specific heat than others meaning that it
needs a lot of heat energy to raise the temperature.
(This explain why water takes several minutes to boil on stove though the pot or kettle reaches
high temperature very quickly)

Copper has lower specific heat than others meaning that it needs
only small amount of energy to raise the temperature.
Question 3

You wish to raise the temperature of each of the

following samples from 20C to 21C. Rank these in
order of the amount of heat needed to do this, from
highest to lowest.
(i) 1 kg of mercury (ii) 1 kg of ethanol (iii) 1 mole of
mercury (iv) 1 mole of ethanol

= 2428 . ; = 111.9 .

= 138 . ; = 27.7 .
References
[1] Young, H., and Freedman, R. (2014). Sears and Zemanskys university physics with modern
physics: Technology update (13th ed., Pearson new international ed.). Harlow, Essex: Pearson
Education.
[2] Serway, R., and Vuille, C. (2007). Essentials of college physics (International student ed.).
Belmont, Calif.: Thomson Brooks/Cole.
[3] Cengel, Y. (1997). Introduction to thermodynamics and heat transfer (International ed.). New
York: McGraw-Hill.
[4] Giambattista, A., Richardson, B., and Richardson, R. (2007). College physics (2nd ed.). New
York: McGraw-Hill Higher Education.