What units are appropriate to express specific heat?
Understand the Problem
The question is asking about the units used to measure specific heat. Specific heat is a property of materials that indicates how much heat energy is required to raise the temperature of a unit mass of the substance by one degree Celsius (or Kelvin).
Answer
J/g°C or cal/g°C, and J/kg·K
The units for specific heat are joules per gram per degree Celsius (J/g°C) or calories per gram per degree Celsius (cal/g°C). Additionally, specific heat can also be expressed in joules per kilogram per Kelvin (J/kg·K).
Answer for screen readers
The units for specific heat are joules per gram per degree Celsius (J/g°C) or calories per gram per degree Celsius (cal/g°C). Additionally, specific heat can also be expressed in joules per kilogram per Kelvin (J/kg·K).
More Information
Specific heat is a property that describes how much heat energy is required to raise the temperature of a given mass of a substance by a certain temperature interval.
Tips
Common mistakes include confusing specific heat with heat capacity, or using the wrong units. Be careful to match units with the quantities being measured.
Sources
- Heat Capacity and Specific Heat - Chemistry LibreTexts - chem.libretexts.org
- Specific heat capacity - Wikipedia - en.wikipedia.org
