What is Heat Capacity?
The amount of heat required to increase the temperature of a given mass of a substance by one unit without causing a phase change is known as the heat capacity (C) or thermal capacity. It describes a substance’s ability to absorb thermal energy.
Being an extensive property, heat capacity is based on the sample’s mass and size. This suggests that, for a sample containing twice as much material as another sample, twice as much heat energy (Q) would be needed to produce the same change in temperature.
The heat capacity of various substances will determine how much their temperatures will rise. On a hot day, a metal chair left in the direct sun may get rather warm to the touch whereas equal amounts of water won’t heat up nearly as much when exposed to the same amount of sunlight. This indicates that water has a high heat capacity. Metals typically do not react well to temperature fluctuations while water does.
Heat Capacity
Heat capacity or thermal capacity is an extensive property of matter, that defines its physical property. Heat Capacity is the amount of heat that must be applied to an object in order to cause a unit change in temperature. Heat capacity is measured in Joules per Kelvin (J/K), which is its SI unit. When heat capacity is divided by the mass of the substance, gives the corresponding intensive property called Specific Heat Capacity. Moreover, heat capacity divided by the amount of substance in volumes gives Molar Heat Capacity. Hence, in this article, we’ll understand the important concepts of Heat Capacity like its definition, explanation, formula, unit, specific heat capacity, molar heat capacity