heat capacity

noun

, Thermodynamics.

1. the heat required to raise the temperature of a substance one degree.

heat capacity

noun

1. the heat required to raise the temperature of a substance by unit temperature interval under specified conditions, usually measured in joules per kelvin. Symbol: C p (for constant pressure) or C v (for constant volume)

heat capacity

1. The ratio of the heat energy absorbed by a substance to its increase in temperature. Heat capacity is also called thermal capacity .
2. ◆ The specific heat or specific heat capacity of a substance is the heat capacity per unit mass, usually measured in joules per kilogram per degree Kelvin.
3. See also latent heat

heat capacity

1. In physics , the capability of a substance to absorb energy in the form of heat for a given increase in temperature. Materials with high heat capacities, such as water, require greater amounts of heat to increase their temperatures than do substances with low heat capacities, such as metals. ( See entropy .)

Word History and Origins

Origin of heat capacity¹

First recorded in 1900–05

Example Sentences

The females nest underground, which buffers them from variations in air temperature, although soil texture may affect the degree of thermal buffering as sandy soils have a lower heat capacity.

From Science Daily

She assumed that diamond dust, with its high heat capacity, could help.

From Science Daily

For example, we can swap the bolometer material from metal to graphene, which has a lower heat capacity and can detect very small changes in its energy quickly.

From Science Daily

Such properties include a wide variety of measurable traits such as phase equilibria, density, or heat capacity, for example, that characterize physical systems and determine how chemical processes work.

From Science Daily

“The key fields that you wanted to provide, in order to prove superconductivity, is electrical resistance goes to zero, magnetic susceptibility—which is a demonstration of this expelling the magnetic fields—and heat capacity measurements. These are three different directions,” Dias says.

From Scientific American