What is specific heat capacity?

Specific heat capacity is defined as the amount of heat required to raise the temperature of one gram of a substance by one degree Celsius. This property is crucial in understanding how different materials respond to heat, influencing everything from climate science to cooking.

Specific heat capacity is a measure of a substance's ability to store thermal energy. Different substances have different specific heat capacities; for example, water has a high specific heat capacity, allowing it to absorb and release heat without undergoing significant changes in temperature. This property makes water an important factor in climate regulation and biological processes.

The other options relate to other thermal processes but do not define specific heat capacity. For instance, boiling and evaporation are processes that involve phase changes, while freezing relates to the temperature drop and phase change of a substance from liquid to solid. Specific heat capacity specifically pertains to the temperature change in a substance without changing its phase.