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Ted Mooney, P.E. RET

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Heat capacity and conductivity relationship

Can anyone tell me why thermal conductivity and specific heat capacity isn't related? ain't heating up fast equals requires little energy to heat up.

Andy Teo
Student - SINGAPORE
2004

As a guess, you got it wrong on the exam and want to argue it out with the teacher :-)

Your intuition is close to correct, Andy. Certainly metals have high thermal conductivity and reasonably low specific heats. But aluminum has a thermal conductivity four times higher than cast iron and a specific heat almost twice that of cast iron.

Try this thought experiment. Cut the feet off of a cast iron statue of some historical figure you don't like (this is a thought experiment only). Put a sock on one of the feet. Now grind the other foot up into dust and fill a sock with the dust. The specific heat of the two feet hasn't changed. Now hold that figure's feet to the fire and see which sock you let go of first.

Ted Mooney, P.E.
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey
2004

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