Question

Specific heat capacity depends on the mass of the substance. True or False?

(a) True

(b) False

The question was posed to me in an online interview.

Origin of the question is Thermal Properties of Matter topic in section Thermal Properties of Matter of Physics – Class 11

Answer 1

Right option is (b) False

The explanation is: Specific heat capacity is defined as the heat capacity per unit mass for a substance.                          s = ΔQ/mΔT.                                                                                                                                                                            So, no matter what mass of a substance we take                                                                                                                       ‘s’ will be equal to (ΔQ/ΔT) divided by that mass,                                                                                                  which means ‘s’ doesn’t depend on the mass.