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Glite Dictionary
specific heat

specific heat

1 5.7
Amount of heat needed to raise one gram of a material by one degree Celsius
  • noun
  • /spəˈsɪfɪk hiːt/
  • Specialized
translation icon : calor específico
  • If you increase density by jamming more kilograms into a volume, the specific heat remains the same because it is per unit mass.

Do you know the symbol for specific heat, CC?

Examples

  • So we define specific heat to be the heat needed to produce a certain temperature change for one mole.

  • Specific heat of water = 4186 joules per kilogram and 70% of Earth's surface.

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  • The heat capacity per unit volume increases, but not the specific heat.

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  • So the specific heat for the foam is the same as the specific heat for the solid.

  • Specific heat is the amount of energy to raise a unit mass one degree.

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  • The specific heat of almost everything is between 0.1 kJ/kg K and 10 kJ/kg K.

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  • Water has a specific heat of 4.18 joules per gram per degree Celsius, which means it requires that much energy to raise its temperature by one degree.

  • The specific heat of copper is much lower than that of water, making it heat up and cool down faster.

  • In science, the specific heat of a substance is essential for understanding its thermal properties and behavior during temperature changes.

Surface Forms

specific heat singular
specific heats plural

Morphology

specific + heat

The components 'specific' (particular/pertaining to a property) and 'heat' (thermal energy) signal that this is a property related to heat, so a learner can guess it's a technical characteristic of heat. However, the precise quantitative meaning (amount of heat per unit mass per degree) is domain-specific and not fully predictable from the words alone, so prior exposure or subject knowledge is needed.

Etymology

Specific heat combines specific, meaning for a particular material, and heat, the energy that makes things warm, so it pictures how much heat one material needs to get warmer. Imagine each material has its own 'heat need', and some, like water, soak up a lot before they get warmer, like a big sponge. So specific heat means the amount of heat needed to raise a small amount of a substance by one degree.