ice 同 water的 specific heat cap

Q: ice 的 specific heat capacity 係2050，water係4200，係咪啫係代表冰融做水ge速度，係快過水變gas?

A: No. Specific heat capacity ony measures the amount of heat absorbed by ice or water when its temperature rises by one degree Celsius. It dosn't indicate the rate of heat absorbed by ice or water.

If the same amount of heat is separately given to the same mass of ice and water, the temperature rise in ice will be higher than that in water.

Q: 佢地ge specific heat capacity唔同，同果d kinetic energy, potential energy, particles，有無關係？如果無關，咁點解個會唔同？

A: Specific heat capacity of a substance depends, among other things, on the intermolecular force between molecules of that substance, which in turn depends on the molecular sturcture.

Molecular kinetic and potential energies are the result of action of intermolecular force.


2012-02-07 14:43:22 補充：
Your supple question:
Becuase molecules in ice are strongly bounded by intermolecular force, whereas those in water are loosely bounded, the increase in molecular separation in ice is much smaller than that in water for a degree rise in temperature.

2012-02-07 14:47:10 補充：
(cont'd)... This is evident from the increase in volume of ice and water. In fact, thermal expansion of ice is about 5x10^-5 per degree C, but it is 2x10^-4 per degres C for water. That is, for one degree rise in temperature, water expands about 4 times larger than ice does.

2012-02-07 14:51:03 補充：
(cont'd)... Therefore, the gain in potential energy of ice molecules is lower than that for water molecules, as potential energy gain increases with increase of molecular separation.

2012-02-07 14:51:19 補充：
(cont'd)... This causes the specific heat capacity (which depends on the gain in potential energy of molecules) of ice smaller than that for water.