Which term is defined as the amount of heat required to raise the temperature of 1 gram of substance by 1°C?

• A. Heat Capacity
• B. Temperature
• C. Specific Heat
• D. Calorie

Answer: (C)

Specific heat is the property that tells you how much heat a substance must absorb to raise its temperature per unit mass. By definition, it is the amount of heat required to raise the temperature of 1 gram of a substance by 1°C. This is why it’s often written in the equation q = m c ΔT, where c is the specific heat. When you have 1 gram and you raise its temperature by 1°C, the heat added equals the substance’s specific heat, with common units of J/(g·°C) or cal/(g·°C).

Heat capacity, in contrast, is the total heat needed to raise the temperature of an entire object by 1°C and depends on both material and mass. Temperature is a measure of how hot or cold something is, not a property that links heat to mass. A calorie is a unit of energy (often used historically as the amount of heat needed to raise 1 gram of water by 1°C), but the term described in this definition is specific heat.