Chem Blog Week 12

This week we learned about specific heat. Before, we learned that heat is energy, while energy is just energy, and the amount of it dictates what the temperature is. The difference between heat and specific heat, specific heat is not the transfer of energy, heating is.

This week, we also reviewed the degree of hotness (temperature) and quantity of hotness (heat). I am still slightly confused about the topic but I am doing pretty well. I’m just afraid that I will have to pay a dollar! I know now that heat doesn't directly affect temperature which means that heat itself is just an account of the transferring of energy. In conclusion, heat is the means to the energy, the energy the cause, and the temperature the result.

 

We were asked what the meaning of the formula for specific heat is. While I did not know the exact meaning I knew what the variables meant. In class, we learned that specific heat is the amount of change that is required to change the temperature of 1 gram by 1ºC. I also learned that specific heat=energy/(mass x Δ temperature), and specific heat=Joules (J)/(grams x ºC).

With specific heat, the greater the mass, the greater the amount of energy used to increase temperature change with a larger mass. When we were working on the worksheet on this topic almost every problem was dealing with water. It included the specific heat of it which is 4.18 j/g°c.

 This graph shows the Triple Point of water.
The triple point is the point where a substance
is in between all three states of matter. The substance would continually be changing into those states. Although it is possible with water it would take advanced technology to do so.

We learned about graphing the change in states of matter: from solid to liquid, solid to gas, etc. We then learned that two factors affected the changed states of matter: pressure (atm) and temperature (ºC). The regions correspond with the state it is in and you are able to determine he amount of pressure and temperature would be needed to go to that state. The lines splitting the regions are where the matter would change from one state to another. For example the line splitting solid of liquid would mean that something is melting  (solid to liquid) or freezing (liquid to a solid). Mr. Abud gave us a worksheet on this and I did pretty good after I understood how to read the graphs.

My predictions for next week are that we will learn more about specific heat and I will get an even greater understanding of the concept. I feel pretty secure on what we are learning and hopefully it will stay that way. I’m actually writing my blog on paper because I haven’t had a computer for moment. Hopefully I will have next week, but if not my blogs and my presentation are going to be really late. L