What is specific heat and what is so special about the specific heat of water?

Answer 1

specific heat is the amount of heat energy required to raise the temperature of a substance by 1 degree celcius. water has a very high specific heat.... this means that it can absorb large quantities of heat before its temperature rises by 1 degree celcius... i guess this is important in terms of thermoregulation. water absorbs heat energy and makes he planet cooler...

Answer 2

SHC (specific heat capacity) is the quantity of energy which is required to raise 1 degree Celsius of 1 L of a material. We always use this formula when we are using different material in construction or mixing different solution, because each material has its unique chemical formula so there would be a different of its tendency of absorbing heat.

On the other hand, water has a SHC of 4200 J/ [(L)(C)], where Joules(J) is the unit of the quantity of energy, L is the unit of quantity of volume, and C is the unit of temperature. Indeed, 4200 J/ [(L)(C)] is pretty large in the nature, which mean water can adsorb a lot of heat before it turns into gas form, this advantage makes water can be used as a cooling solution in the cooling system. Also, we use it because it is chape, water is everywhere on this planet, even though not all of them is potable.

Moreover, the high SHC of water can be explain by its Hydrogen bonding. Since Hydrogen would be a ''naked'' proton once its electron is taken away, where proton has a extremely strong positive charge. It makes the bonding between water molecules and water molecules is also stronger too because this naked proton has a very strong attraction with its surrounding electron. So it is hard to separate the molecules apart, like gasifying it into gas.

I hope I have answered your question.

Answer 3

see:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Specific_heat

Water is not "special," it's just that there's a lot of it and it's pretty efficient at storing heat.