what is the difference between heat capacity and latent heat?

Answer 1

1. heat capacity: energy needed to raise temprature of 1 gram of a material by 1 degree. (e.g. heat needed to raise temprature of 1 gram of water from 1 dec C to 2 deg C)

2. latent heat: energy needed to convert frozen (solid) material to liquid (molten) material at the same temprature, which is the melting point of the material. e.g. heat needed to melt 1 gram of ice at 0 deg C to water at 0 deg C)

Answer 2

Ordinarily, when heat is transfer to something, the temperature increases by a regular amount. If you double the amount of heat, you double the amount that the temperature goes up.

How much is goes up for a certain amount of heat depends on how much you have (the mass) and a property of the material called the heat capacity.

For instance, ice has about 1/2 the heat capacity of liquid water. So the same amount of heat will change the temperature of ice about twice as much as it would water.

The equation goes like

Q=mc delta T
Where
Q is the heat tranfered
m is the mass
delta T is the change in temperature
(delta, of course is usually written as a triangle)

Sometimes, when the material goes from one phase to another, like solid to liquid or liquid to gas or gas to plasma, adding heat doesn't change the temperature. The temperature stays the same. Instead, it causes the material to go from one state to another. The amount of heat that needs to be transfered to go from one state to another depends on how much material there is (the mass) and a quantity called the latent heat.

The equation in this case is
Q=mL
where
Q=heat transfer (again)
m=mass
L=latent heat

Answer 3

Heat capacity is the ability of any element to hold heat while latent heat is the heat absorbed or realeased during a state change for example baked potatoes have latent heat

Answer 4

Heat capacity is the temperature needed to raise a gram of
something by 1 degree celsius without changing state(liquid, solid, gas, plasma.).

Lantent heat is how much heat is needed to change the state. Boiling water to 100 celcius is an example, cause it evaporates making a gas.