What is metal's specific heat capacity?

Answer 1

The "Specific Heat" of a metal is a measure of the amount of energy per unit of mass (1 gram) to raise the temperature of that metal one degree Celsius.

It is based upon the amount of energy required to raise 1 gram* of water 1 degree Centigrade, from 15 degrees C to 16 degrees C.

Today there are TWO STANDARD FORMS for the equation: one uses calories, the other uses Joules.

The "Specific Heat" of a metal is the amount of energy required to raise one gram of a substance 1 degree Celsius. If it is water that amount is 1 Calorie, or 4.1868 Joules. If it another substance, like cast iron, that number is .11 Cal. or 0.461 Joules.

Most of the time you will be using Kilo-Calories (1000 calories or KC) per Kilo-gram (1000 grams or Kg).

* 1 gram of water = 1 milliliter (ml) = 1 Cubic Centimeter (cc)

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IMPORTANT RULE: EVERYTHING HAS IT'S OWN SPECIFIC HEAT!!!!

DON'T MAKE THE MISTAKE of thinking the heavier something is the more energy it takes to heat it up!!!!

The metal Lead (Pb) is 12.9 times as heavy as water, but it's specific heat is NOT 12.9 times as much, it is FAR less, when you look it up, you will see that it is .031 calories per gram per degree C. (.031 cal/degree C.), FAR less than water. About 30 times less!

REMEMBER TO ALWAYS CHECK YOUR UNITS!!!!

Joules, Calories, Watts, Horse Power, Ergs, BTU's, and Newtons are ALL measures of energy (-- thus heat able to be produced).

You need to keep your units the same all the way through so you:

1) don't become confused

OR

2) Don't do part of your work in Centimeters per second and the other part in inches per second, and crash a Multi-billion dollar Mars Lander (this really happened!). Even the best professionals make mistakes -- often the difference between an engineer and a professional engineer is that the professional LEARNS from their mistakes!

A formula can be written many ways. It can use Calories or Joules or ergs, it can also use CC's or ml or liquid ounces OR grams or kilograms or pounds. It can use Degrees Celsius OR it can use Degrees Fahrenheit and it can even use Degrees Kelvin! Make certain that you keep your units the same, and check often, because some times you do PART of a problem in one kind of unit, and the second part in a different kind of unit! So ALWAYS PAY ATTENTION.

You need to be able to do this in your head 1cc=1ml=1gm, if you are talking about water, but no matter what the substance is, we still have the independent fact that 1 ml = 1cc. = .001 liter = 1 ml. It's a special fact that 1ml (volume) of water is 1gm (of mass), by definition). [See elsewhere the definitions of mass and weight, to understand why I didn't write "(of weight)" after 1 gm, just above; mass is not a force; weight is; so gravity is the key to understanding the difference]

Normally you always work in one kind of unit; so, if you start in ml, you should stay in milliliters, until you need to switch for some purpose; Also, if you start in cubic centimeters, you should stay in cc's.

When you don't, bad things can happen. Like you crash a Mars Lander because you had people working in different units and someone made a mistake that no one caught -- in that case it was inches and centimeters, but I've seen it happen in cc's and ml and ounces - professionals tend to trust each other, so if you are working in ml's and I am working in ounces we can confuse each other. So make sure you convert all the units to the same one so mistakes are easier to find. Even if they are the equivalent -- turn them all into the same unit so if you see CC's and ml -- turn EVERYTHING into one or the other so you keep the problem easy.

Key Data Point: In the real world, a specific heat of 4.186 joules or 1 calorie is a large number, in fact, it is a very high number.

REAL SCHOOL PROBLEM THAT DOES NOT INVOLVE WATER!!:

Here is the way to find a specific heat by using calories, like we did with water, only we are using iron. Now iron, like most other substances may have many different specific heats based upon the FORM of the substance. For example here are three different specific heats of 'Iron':

Cast iron = 0.11

Iron = 0.108

Wrought Iron = 0.50

FIRST: HOW DO YOU FIND THE SPECIFIC HEAT OF A METAL OR ANY OTHER MATERIAL? -- You look it up. Someone has done the work for you.

It is the amount of energy required to raise the temperature of a 1 gram amount of a material by 1 degree Celsius. If it is liquid you can use milliliters instead of CC's, but a CC is easier for most people to visualize when it's ANY material. It can be diffiuclt to visualize 1 gram of iron, but a cube of iron that is .7mm on a side is easy to see in your minds eye. (notice I changed CM to MM) it would be .07 cm I just divided by 1000 because 1, 000 cubic mm = 1 cc [there are 10mm in 1 cm)].

UNDER CONSTRUCTION, -- PLEASE FEEL FREE TO JUMP INTO THIS AND CLEAN IT UP OR WORK USING THE three 'STANDARD' METHODS: joules, calories, and erg's. I have not gotten to ergs yet. My goal is to allow parents who haven't had high school algebra in the last 20 years, high school students who need a quick hand with examples, and 8th graders a way to get a grasp, as well as the freshling who has a problem with his text book and needs to see things from a different perspective to get access to what specific heat is, and how your find it while keeping the vocabulary easy, and remembering that not every one recalls how to Excuse their Dear Aunt Sally. (Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally), or how to cross-cancel units.

MAJOR SOURCE:

http://www.engineeringtoolbox.com/

HOME PAGE FORMULAS:

http://www.engineeringtoolbox.com/heat-work-energy-d_292.HTML

SPECIFIC HEATS OF VARIOUS METALS:

http://www.engineeringtoolbox.com/specific-heat-metals-d_152.HTML

SHAPES AND WEIGHTS CALCULATOR:

http://www.matweb.com/tools/weightcalculator.aspx

GOOD FOR ALL KINDS OF CONVERSIONS:

http://www.onlineconversion.com/

MAJOR SOURCE ATTRIBUTION:

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And never forget that because there may be a page easier to understand, please ALWAYS make it a practice to double check your data by verifying though at least three different search engine sites, I use Google, and a multiple engine search engine called 'Dogpile.com' -- Yahoo would also give you a different set of returns.

Answer 2

The value of the specific heat of a metal depends on the kind of metal, as of any other material it is a specific physical property.

Some examples:

Iron (Fe) 25.10 J·mol−1·K−1

Copper (Cu) 24.440 J·mol−1·K−1

Heat capacity, or specific heat, is the measurable physical quantity that characterizes the amount of heat required to change a substance's temperature by a given amount.

Accompanied by the term 'specific' it it expressed as heat capacity per amount (mole or mass) of the considered substance (J.K-1.mol-1 or J.K-1.gram-1)

Answer 3

Depends on which metal, one of them might have a value of '1.1112 J/g'

Other examples:

Iron (Fe) 25.10 J·mol−1·K−1

Copper (Cu) 24.440 J·mol−1·K−1

Heat capacity (usually denoted by a capital C, often with subscripts), or thermal capacity, is the measurable physical quantity that characterizes the amount of heat required to change a substance's temperature by a given amount.

Accompanied by the term 'specific' it it expressed as heat capacity per amount (mole or mass) of the considered substance (J.K-1.mol-1 or J.K-1.gram-1)

Answer 4

The specific heat is a thermodynamic term for the amount of energy consumed in raising the temperature of exactly 1 gram of a substance by exactly 1 degree Kelvin (or Celsius, but Kelvin is the preferred unit of temperature in thermodynamics). It is a material constant, which is to say, it is governed exclusively by the type of elements and structure of elements within the object in question, independent the size, shape or weight of the object.

Note that in thermodynamics, heat refers to energy transfer, not temperature. The two terms are mutually exclusive, but related by specific heat. This is in direct conflict with normal English use of the terms.

Answer 5

It depends on which type of metal you are talking about:

MetalLatent Heat of Fusion(kJ/kg)(cal/g)Aluminum39895Antimony16138.5Beryllium1356324Bismuth51.912.4Cadmium5513.2Chromium33179Cobalt2566Copper20549Gold6315Iridium13833Iron27265Lead235.5Magnesium36888Manganese26864Mercury11.32.7Molybdenum28969Nickel29771Niobium28568Osmium14234Platinum10024Plutonium12.63Potassium6114.5Rhodium16750Selenium6716Silicon1926430Silver11126.5Sodium11327Tantalum17241Thorium7117Tin5914.1Titanium419100Tungsten19346Uranium5012Vanadium41098Zinc11327

Answer 6

Specific heat capacity is the amount of heat required to raise the temperature of one gram of a substance through one degree celsius. Metals have a low specific heat capacity.

Answer 7

Nothing affects specific heat, it always remains the same