Question

Define Specific Heat and Latent Heat. Give examples of phenomena that involve each type of heat.

Answer 1

Specific Heat : It is the amount of heat required to raise the temperature of a substance to a certain amount.

^where, c = specific heat capacity of substance

C = heat capacity of substance

M = mass of substance

dQ represents the amount of heat needed to uniformly raise the temperature of the sample by a small increment dt.

Latent Heat : it is the amount of heat released during a change of state.

  

^where,  Q = heat required to completely effect a phase change of a unit of mass (m),

Example: Conversion of liquid water into vapor. In this process first liquid water is raise to boiling point of 100⁰ C using specific heat and after coming to boiling point water is converted into vapor i.e. in gaseous state using latent heat.