Heat and temperature
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16. Specific heat

If it Is a warm, sunny day on the beach in the summertime, the sand feels hot on our bare feet.


We take a dip in the water if we want to cool off because the water feels much cooler than the sand.

Why does the sand—but not the water—get hot in the sun?.
The answer has to do with specific heat.

Specific heat is a measure of how much energy it takes to raise the temperature of a substance.
It is the amount of energy (in joules) needed to raise the temperature of 1 gram of the substance by 1 °C.

Specific heat is a property that is specific to a given type of matter. That’s why it’s called specific.

Metals such as iron have low specific heat. It doesn’t take much energy to raise their temperature. That’s why a metal spoon heats up quickly when placed in a cup of hot coffee.

Sand also has a relatively low specific heat.

Water, on the other hand, has a very high specific heat.
It takes a lot more energy to increase the temperature of water than it does sand.

This explains why the sand on a beach gets hot while the water stays cool.
Differences in the specific heat of water and land even affect climate.

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