Why the specfic heat capacity of different substance is different?

Answer 1

One possibility is volume. For instance, a gallon of water has more potential energy than a glass of water.

Temperature has nothing to do with heat capacity.

Forces between molecules APEX

Answer 2

Specific heat capacity or SHC is defined (In chemistry at least) as: The amount of energy required to raise one gram of a substance by one kelvin.

Due to the weights of different molecules lighter substances contain more particles for a given weight and because all the particles are heated evenly (due to the property that a closed systems will seek to obtain a thermal equilibrium) lighter substances will have a higher SHC because there are more particles per gram

e.g.

The SHC of Hydrogen, which has an atomic weight of 1.008 AMU's is ~14.3

The SHC of Oxygen, which has an atomic weight of 16 AMU's is ~0.918

As you can see because hydrogen is ~16 times smaller than Oxygen, the increased number of particles per gram means that a lot more energy is required to raise them all by one kelvin

CORRECTION: Specific heat capacity or SHC is defined (In chemistry at least) as: The amount of energy required to raise one gram of a substance by one DEGREES CELSIUS

Answer 3

The specific heat capacity of different substances is different because substances do not have the same molecular mass. Molecular mass is the total weight of the atoms or molecules of a substance.

Answer 4

The specific heat capacity of a substance depends on its molecular structure and composition. Substances with complex molecular structures tend to have higher specific heat capacities because they can store more thermal energy for a given temperature change. Additionally, the presence of different types of intermolecular forces in a substance can affect its specific heat capacity.

Answer 5

Specific heat capacity depends on the chemical structure of a compound.