Specific heat capacity · 2 parts · syllabus 2.2.2

Why does water take so long to heat up?

Weigh a block of aluminium, heat it with an immersion heater through a joulemeter and plot its temperature against the energy supplied, with a magnifier showing its particles. Work out its specific heat capacity, improve the measurement with an insulating jacket, then measure the specific heat capacity of a kilogram of water.

Start learning Explore the experiment

A sunny beach at midday: an orange bucket and a pair of flip-flops on dry sand, and the calm sea beyond it.

Follow the idea

Heating a block of aluminium
Internal energy and temperature; specific heat capacity, its definition and c = ΔE ÷ (m Δθ); measuring it for a solid, and why an insulating jacket improves the result
Not started
Measuring the specific heat capacity of water
Measuring the specific heat capacity of water; why water warms and cools slowly, and where that matters
Not started

An aluminium block on a heat-proof mat with an immersion heater and a thermometer in two holes in its top. Leads run from the heater to a joulemeter and on to a power pack, and a white polystyrene jacket stands beside the block.

The experiment · Heat a block, then water · measure c

Run it yourself, or project it for the class

Use the apparatus step by step and look closely at what happens. The whole experiment fits one screen, so it works on a projector too.

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Final check

Explain it on your own across both parts. Hints and keys stay closed until you submit.

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Return and recall

Come back after one to two weeks and answer with the lesson closed.

Recall questions

For teachers

Printable worksheets with their answer keys, the final check and the return questions for this module.

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Scope and sources

Cambridge IGCSE Physics 0625 · 2026–2028 v2 · Original learning materials.

A rise in the temperature of an object increases its internal energy (2.2.2.1); the rise in temperature in terms of an increase in the average kinetic energy of its particles (2.2.2.2); specific heat capacity as the energy needed per unit mass per unit temperature increase, with c = ΔE ÷ (m Δθ) (2.2.2.3); experiments to measure the specific heat capacity of a solid and of a liquid (2.2.2.4). Changes of state, melting and boiling, are in MELT01; conduction, convection and radiation are in TRANS01.

Apparatus, amounts and times in the experiment are illustrative. Real practical work follows a teacher-approved safety method.

Official Cambridge syllabus

Why does water take so long to heat up?

Follow the idea

Heating a block of aluminium

Measuring the specific heat capacity of water

Run it yourself, or project it for the class