Thermal Physics

 Heat dependent factors

 How to Measure Heat Capacity?
 Heat Capacity, Specific Heat Capacity
and their units
 Measuring Specific Heat Capacity
 Applications
 Numericals
 HEAT CAPACITY

At the end of a sunny day at the beach, you often notice that
while the sand has become quite hot, the water has stayed cool.
 SAME amount of
HEAT ENERGY

Small Large
TEMPERATURE TEMPERATURE
RISE RISE
WATER SAND

Putting the SAME AMOUNT OF HEAT into some materials

gives a BIGGER TEMPERATURE RISE than in other materials
 Comparing water and cooking oil
1kg of
1kg of water cooking oil
30° 60°
rise rise

50°C
20°C 20°C
80°C

….heating
Identical rings turned on for 1 minute

The water heats up less than the oil.

The SAME AMOUNT OF HEAT produces HALF the
TEMPERATURE RISE in the water as in the oil
 Comparing water and cooking oil 2
What would we need to do to make the SAME TEMPERATURE
RISE in the water as in the oil?
1kg of water 1kg of cooking oil
60° 60°
rise rise

80°C
20°C 20°C
80°C

Heat for 2 minutes Heat for 1 minute

To make the SAME TEMP RISE we need to put

TWICE AS MUCH HEAT into the water as the oil
To make the SAME TEMP RISE we need to put
TWICE AS MUCH HEAT into the water as the oil
This means water has twice the CAPACITY to absorb
and store heat energy as oil.
Materials vary quite widely as to the amount of heat they can
absorb for the same temperature rise. There are no simple
patterns in this although metals tend to have low capacities.

water Silica copper

cooking
oil (rock)
 SAME AMOUNT OF HEAT PUT IN
We only get ¼
the TEMP RISE
with water than
5°C 10°C 20°C 40°C with rock for the
rise rise rise rise SAME AMOUNT
water cooking silica copper of HEAT
oil (rock)
Two ways to look at heat capacity…
HEAT FOR We need to put in
16 mins 8 mins 4 mins 2 mins 4x the AMOUNT
OF HEAT into
water than rock
10°C 10°C 10°C 10°C to get the SAME
rise rise rise rise TEMP RISE
water cooking silica copper
oil (rock)
 So we say water has a HIGHER
HEAT CAPACITY than rock

Let’s figure it out See those results

again..
 To measure HEAT CAPACITY, first we
need to know. Factors affecting the
heat required to raise the
temperature of a body
Factors affecting the heat required (Q)are :
1) Mass That means the amount of heat depends on amount of mass
2) Temperature That means the amount of heat is directly

proportional to Temperature change.

Therefore, we get the heat formula

Where, “C” is Proportionality constant called as HEAT CAPACITY.

also called as SPECIFIC HEAT CAPACITY
 How to MEASURE HEAT CAPACITY?

To compare the heat capacity of materials, we need to measure:

How many JOULES of heat energy

are needed to make each degree
temperature rise

1°C
rise
To make a FAIR comparison between materials we
also need to compare the same amount of…..

mass (kg)? volume (m3)? particles (moles)?

And we use SPECIFIC Heat Capacity which

compares the same amount of MASS.
SPECIFIC HEAT CAPACITY (c) is….
How many JOULES of heat energy
are needed to raise the temperature of
each kg by each °C

How many 1 kg
Joules ?

1°C
rise
 Define : Heat Capacity “C”
“measure of a substance’s capacity to
It is the
absorb/release heat to increase temperature
by unit rise in temperature”.
is called as Heat Capacity

Then what is Specific Heat Capacity “C” ?

It is the measure of a substance’s
capacity to absorb/release heat to
increase temperature of unit mass by
unit rise in temperature”.
is called as Specific Heat Capacity
 UNITS:

HEAT joule (J)

HEAT
CAPACITY

Specific
HEAT
CAPACITY
SPECIFIC HEAT CAPACITIES
of different materials
Air (typical room conditions) 1012 Lead 129
Aluminium 897 Mercury 139.5
Carbon dioxide 839 Methane 2191
Chromium 449 Nitrogen 1040
Copper 385 Neon 1030.1
Diamond 509.1 Oxygen 918
Ethanol 2440 Paraffin wax 2500
Gasoline 2220 Polyethylene 2302.7
Glass 840
Gold 129 Silica 703
Granite 790 Water at 100 °C (steam) 2080
Graphite 710 Water at 25 °C (water) 4181.3
Helium 5193.2 Water at −10 °C (ice) 2050
Hydrogen 14300 Zinc 387
Iron 450

Water at 25 °C (water) = 4181.3 = 4200

SPECIFIC HEAT CAPACITY of Water :

= 4200

or
= 4.2

But, in C.G.S system its value is =

Or
Measuring Specific Heat Capacity
Hot water bag
Water as coolant
1. For making cooking pans and pots. Since these substances
have low heat capacity they get heated quicker. Eg:- Metals.
 2. Thermometer should have
substances with low specific
heat capacity to measure the
temperature. Mercury has a
low specific heat capacity .

3. Steam has a low specific heat

capacity (0.47 calorie per gram per
°C) than water(1 cal per gram per
°C) and heats much more than
water for the same time of
heating. That's also why steam
causes more severe burns than
boiling water.