Would the difference be like 2nd and 3rd degree burns?

Question

1. The specific heat of ethanol is 2.46. If you spill boiling alcohol on yourself, would there be any difference in the severity of that burn compared to the burn caused by boiling water? Explain your answer.

Answer 1

What is the boiling point of ethanol? It's like about 78ºC. Compare that to the boiling point of water which is 100ºC. Specific heat of water is 4.184 J/gº compared to that for ethanol of 2.46 J/gº. It will take much less heat to boil ethanol than to boil water.

It's impossible to predict the "difference in severity of the burn" because too many other variables would come into play, but boiling water would be worse according to thermodynamics alone.