What's the difference between specific heat and thermal capacity?

Question

Both specific heat and thermal capacity are the amounts of heat needed to raise the unit temperature of a body. So what's the difference between them?

Answer 1

Not exactly.  They both are the amount of heat to raise the unit temperature, but the difference is that specific heat also includes units of mass.  So, specific heat is the amount of heat to raise 1 unit of mass by 1 unit of temperature and is usually expressed in joules/g/degree or joules/kg/deg, etc.  This is an intensive property as it is independent of the amount or mass of material.

 

Thermal capacity is the heat needed to raise the temperature by 1 unit and is simply heat/change in temperature.  It is an extensive property as it depends on the mass being investigated. Thus the thermal capacity of 100 g of a a substance is not the same as that of 500 g of substance.  

 

In summary, 

Specific Heat is Q/mass/∆T and is intensive

Thermal Capacity is Q/∆T and is extensive