Educator

Heat

• Heat is the energy that flows from the higher temperature object to the lower temperature object when the two are placed in contact.
• When heat Q is added to an object of mass m, its temperature increases according to the equation Q = mc(Final T – Initial T0, where c is the specific heat capacity of the object.
• When two objects are in contact and are isolated from the environment, the heat gained by one is equal to the heat lost by the other; this is simply the conservation of energy.
• The amount of heat added (or removed) per kilogram as a substance changes its phase (ice to water, for example) is the latent heat. The latent heat of fusion is the amount of heat that must be added to 1 kg of ice at 0 C to transform it to water at 0 C. The latent heat of vaporization is the amount of heat that must be added to 1 kg of water at 100 C to transform it to steam at 100 C.