Question

Water has high specific heat due to
(a)Its dipole nature
(b)Smaller angle between hydrogen atoms and an oxygen atom
(c)Hydrogen bond amongst molecules
(d)All of the above

Answer 1

Hint: The capability of a molecule to absorb heat energy is called heat capacity. Water’s high heat capacity is a property caused due to the bonding among water molecules. It has the chemical formula $H_2O$, meaning that one molecule of water is composed of two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom. The water molecule forms an angle, with hydrogen atoms at the tips and oxygen at the vertex.

Complete answer:
The high heat capacity of water is a property caused by hydrogen bonding among water molecules. When heat is absorbed, hydrogen bonds are broken and water molecules can move freely. When the temperature of water decreases, the hydrogen bonds are formed and release a considerable amount of energy. Water has the highest specific heat capacity of any liquid. Specific heat capacity is a measure of the amount of heat necessary to raise the temperature of one gram of a pure substance by one degree Celsius. For water, this amount is one calorie or 4.184 Joules. As a result, it takes a long time to heat and a long time to cool. In fact, the specific heat capacity of water is about five times more than that of sand. This explains why the land cools faster than the sea.

Additional Information: -Heat capacity is the ratio of the amount of heat energy transferred to an object to the resulting increase in its temperature.
-The specific heat of a substance, especially a gas, may be significantly higher when it is allowed to expand as it is heated.
-The SI unit of specific heat is joule per kelvin and kilogram, J/(K kg).
So, the correct answer is 'Hydrogen bond amongst molecules.'

Note: -One of the important properties of water is that it is composed of polar molecules. The two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom within water molecules form polar covalent bonds.
-The breaking of these bonds is caused by the motion (kinetic energy) of the water molecules due to the heat contained in the system.
-The formation of hydrogen bonds is an important quality of liquid water. When the heat is raised as water is boiled, the higher kinetic energy of the water molecules causes the hydrogen bonds to break completely and allows water molecules to escape into the air as a gas.