q = C ∆T and q = mc ∆T
where do those formulae come from? can you explain intuitively?
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Q = mcΔT is something we derived through experimentation. We know how much energy we put into a material, and we can measure its mass and temperature, and they relate such that Q~mΔT, but there’s some constant in there depending on the material, which is c.
Heat capacity or specific heat is that constant. All ot means is that some materials are better at holding energy in the form of heat than others. If I have something cold with a high specific heat and something hot with a low specific heat, and I touch them together, the low specific heat thing is going to cool down a lot faster than the high specific heat one heats up. That’s because the energy leaving one has to be the same energy entering the other, but the one with the high specific heat has so much more capacity for that heat.
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