Courses
Courses for Kids
Free study material
Offline Centres
More
Store Icon
Store
seo-qna
SearchIcon
banner

How can specific heat be used to identify substances?

Answer
VerifiedVerified
544.8k+ views
Hint: We know that the measurements of the specific heat capacity of a solid as well as liquid describe measurement of heat flow in such case of any physical/chemical reaction thus for any kind of liquid/solid and thus we will use this formula to determine:
\[{{Q}_{w}}=\text{ }{{m}_{w}}\cdot C\cdot \Delta {{T}_{w}}\]

Complete step-by-step answer:We should know that of making accurate measurement of a heat transfer as well as also at same time to prevent heat loss to the environment thus we use an insulating device that is known as a Calorimeter. Therefore that is a device which is used for measurements of the specific heat capacity of a solid as well as liquid in the Calorimeter.
An unknown metal of a known mass is stood heated to known temperature thus, heated metal can be placed into a sample of water for that given volume and therefore mass since \[1mL=1g\] along with temperature is to be known.
The amount of energy (Q) transfer to water can be calculated by using equation
\[{{Q}_{w}}=\text{ }{{m}_{w}}\cdot C\cdot \Delta {{T}_{w}}\]
Where, \[m\text{ }=\]mass
\[\Delta T_w\text{ }=\] temperature change that can be measured.
\[{{Q}_{w}}\text{ }=\] heat gained of water will equal the
\[{{Q}_{m}}\text{ }=\] heat lost by metal
Therefore, the main purpose of a calorimeter is to describe the measurement of the amount of heat developed during occurrence of any sort of mechanical, chemical as well as electrical phenomenon. It's also used for knowing the heat capacity of various materials.

Note: Note that we have to come across term specific heat capacity also we need to define term for better understanding. Thus the specific heat capacity of substance signify amount of energy that it needs to be provided with which will be in form of heat in order to one
unit mass of a specific sample.