Question

What is the formula used for determining the specific heat?

Answer 1

The amount of energy per unit mass which is required to change the temperature of any substance is known as the specific heat of that substance. Every substance requires this specific heat of energy. The change produced by this specific heat of energy in temperature of substance would be one degree celsius. Thus we will find the expression of specific heat by using the above definition.

Complete Step By Step Answer:
The specific heat of a substance can be defined as the amount of heat required to raise the temperature of one gram of substance by a factor of one degree celsius $(1{{\text{ }}^ \circ }C)$ . Let the amount of heat(Q) is supplied to substance whose mass is m and change in temperature of substance be $\Delta T$ , then the specific heat(c) of the substance can be find by suing the definition as:
$c = \dfrac{Q}{{m\Delta T}}$
Thus we can say that when $m = 1{\text{ gm}}$ and $\Delta T = 1{{\text{ }}^ \circ }C$ then the specific heat will be:
$\Rightarrow {\text{ }}c = \dfrac{Q}{1}$
$\Rightarrow {\text{ }}c = Q$
Thus specific heat becomes equal to energy. The S.I unit of specific heat is $Joules{\text{ }}{\left( {g{{\text{ }}^ \circ }C} \right)^{ - 1}}$ . The energy joules can be replaced by calories.

Note:
The specific heat gives us the idea about how much energy will be required to heat or cool any substance of mass (m) by a given amount. Water has high specific heat which means that it takes more energy to increase the temperature of water as compared to other substances. The mass used in milligram, energy used is in calorie or joules and the difference of temperature is in degree celsius. Do not confuse between latent heat and specific heat, both are different terminology.