why is knowing a metal's specific heat capacity useful info?

Question

a useful piece of scientific information?

Answer 1

The specific heat of a material tells you how much energy it will take to heat a certain mass of that material to a certain temp; alternately, it helps you figure out how much energy you would need to heat an amount of that material to increase its temp by a certain amount

In the case of metals, there is a very simple but useful relationship between the specific heat and its gram atomic weight. This relationship, first described by chemists DuLong and Petit in the early 1800s, shows that for metals, the product of its specfic heat x its gram atomic weight equals 6 cal/deg C. So, if you can measure the specific heat of a metal, you can use the Law of DuLong and Petit to estimate the atomic weight of the substance you have.

Answer 2

Metal Specific Heat

Answer 3

Specific Heat Of Metals

Answer 4

Specific heat of a material is the heat required to raise the temperature of a unit mass by 1 degree celsius. The lower the specific heat of a substance the least amount of heat is required to raise its temperature.

Metals characteristically have low specific heats and thus they retain very little heat. Metals are therefore good condutors of heat because they do not keep much of the heat given to them.

The knowledge about metal's specific heat is useful info since it tells us how much heat is required to raise the metal's temperature to a certain level or may be to melt it.

Answer 5

If you know the heat capacity of the metal, you can predict how much heat you can put into the material before it melts. It has many other uses.