Preview

Should The Specific Heat Capacity Of Water Be Used To Regulate Temperature?

Satisfactory Essays
Open Document
Open Document
563 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Should The Specific Heat Capacity Of Water Be Used To Regulate Temperature?
How can the specific heat capacity of water be used to regulate temperature?

Specific heat capacity is the amount of energy needed to increase the temperature of an object by 1˚C. The formula that uses specific heat is Q = mc∆T, where Q is heat energy, c is specific heat, and ∆T is the change in temperature. The amount of heat energy depends on the mass, or the size of an object, and the specific heat capacity, which depends on the substance it is made from. The specific heat capacity of water is 4.184 J/g°C. This is a very high specific heat capacity compared to other substances, such as metals. Gold, for example, has a heat capacity of 0.128 J/g°C. Water’s high heat capacity means that it can be used to regulate temperatures in a variety of different ways.
…show more content…
This means that it takes a long time to heat water and a long time to cool it. Water’s specific heat capacity causes it to resist sudden changes in temperature. This resistance to change is very important in people because their bodies are 70% water. The water inside them has a high heat capacity and can help to regulate internal body temperature. The average body temperature of a human is 98.6°F or 37°C. The heat capacity of water keeps body temperatures near this value, instead of fluctuating dramatically when people travel or

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Exam II- Chapter 5

    • 616 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Thermoregulation-Helps maintain a constant body temperature) this is done by sweating and adjusting the diameter of blood vessels and flow of blood.…

    • 616 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Specific Heat- A measurement of how well a substance resists changing its temp when absorbs or releases heat.…

    • 283 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    PHYS172 Lab14

    • 2023 Words
    • 10 Pages

    Heat capacity is a measure of how much the energy of a particular type of material…

    • 2023 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    We gain heat by the metabolism of food and by absorbing solar energy from objects, from the ground and connections with the ground. However we lose heat by evaporation (sweat), conduction (lost to the ground or by touching cooler objects), convection (heat lost upwards to the cooler air) and radiation (moved out from the body in all directions to the cooler air). Humans are warm blooded and derive most of their heat from metabolism, and loose heat through our respiratory surfaces, the gut and the skin. Although we can’t control if we lose heat via our respiratory surfaces or the gut, the skin is able to control its heat loss. The regulation of body temperature is the role of the hypothalamus. It sends nerve impulses to muscles, sweat glands and skin blood vessels to cause changes that counteract the external changes - the skin is the main organ of thermoregulation.…

    • 1604 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Body temperature regulation - water has a large heat capacity that allows it to help limit any changes to an individual's body temperature in a certain environment. For example the release of heat when the surrounding temperature is higher than body temperature…

    • 2787 Words
    • 11 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    U1L1 Ws

    • 427 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Water has high specific heat of capacity, which means they can carry a lot of heat. Example, we sweat during a hot day, because our body temperature is increasing. Water is squeezed out from the sweat pores as sweat to lower down our body temperature.…

    • 427 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Muscle Physiology

    • 757 Words
    • 4 Pages

    In warm-blooded animals such as humans, body temperature must be maintained by various negative feedback reflex responses within the body.…

    • 757 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    This is known as specific heat capacity; it measures the amount of energy needed to raise the temperature of that particular substance by 1 degree Celsius. Specific heat capacity was first discovered in the 18th century by a Scottish scientist by the name of Joseph Black who noticed that different substances of equal masses required distinctive amounts of heat to raise them to similar temperature intervals (Encyclopædia Britannica 2014). The specific heat capacity of water is 4.184 J/g°C. Energy is most commonly measured joules (J) or kilojoules (kJ) during the study of heat transfer between two substances (Tuckerman n.d.); however, there is another measurement for energy which is used to measure the amount of energy in food, and this is referred to as food calories. Food calories are equal to 1000 heat calories and 1 heat calorie is equal to 4.184 joules (Calories in Food – A Factor in Weight Maintenance and Weight Loss n.d.). Consequently, it can be seen that the specific heat of a substance can also be measured in calories. Therefore, the specific heat capacity of water can also be written as 1 cal/g°C. In this lab, the calculations were done using food calories and heat calories in order to determine the caloric content of one marshmallow per…

    • 774 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Gummy Bear Experiment

    • 1159 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Thus we must add 4.184 kJ of heat to raise the temperature of 100g of water 10 degrees Celsius.…

    • 1159 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Body temperature is usually maintained to a constant level of 36.5 – 37.5 degrees Celsius through biological homeostasis which he have been learning about in class throughout this term!…

    • 253 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Red Ear Sliders Essay

    • 1342 Words
    • 6 Pages

    The water temperature…

    • 1342 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Thermoregulation is the ability to balance heat production and heat loss in order to maintain body temperature within a certain ‘‘normal’’ range.…

    • 1754 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Mitosis and Meosis

    • 253 Words
    • 1 Page

    The body attempts to maintain homeostasis because the body needs to keep its internal environment regulated and everything at a constant level. The outside temperature can change but it is important to maintain homeostasis because if the temperature level inside the body changes that can cause a person to get sick.…

    • 253 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Chetos

    • 971 Words
    • 4 Pages

    The amount of heat needed to increase the temperature of an object exactly 1°C is the heat capacity of that object. The specific heat capacity of a substance is then the amount of heat it takes to raise the temperature of 1g of the substance1°C. Caliometry is the precise measurement of the heat flow into or out of a system for chemical and physical processes. Heat flow is measured in two common units, the calorie and the Joule. 1 calorie= 1 kilocalorie = 1000 calories. A calorimeter is the device used to measure the absorption or release of heat. In this lab, the water in aluminum can “calorimeter” gains the heat lost during the combustion of a Cheeto.…

    • 971 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Lab 40 Calorimetry

    • 490 Words
    • 2 Pages

    • Heat Capacity is the energy required to raise the temperature of a 1 g sample of a substance 1 0C (or 1 Kelvin degree).…

    • 490 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays