Define specific heat. How would you find the specific heat of a solid?
Difficulty: Easy
Specific heat:
Specific heat of a substance is the amount of heat required to raise the temperature of 1kg mass of that substance through 1K.
It has been observed that the quantity of heat $\triangle Q$ required to raise the temperature $ \triangle T$ of a body is proportional to the mass of the body.
Thus,
$\triangle Q \alpha m \triangle T$
$\triangle Q$ = c m \triangle T$ ……………….. (i)
Here $ \triangle Q$ is the amount of heat absorbed by the body and c is the constant of proportionality called the specific heat capacity or simply specific heat.
Mathematically,
c =$\frac{\triangleQ}{(m\triangle T )}$ (ii)
Unit of specific heat:
SI unit of specific heat is J〖kg〗$^{-1} K^{-1}$.
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