
5
Specific Heats:
Magnificent Bridges
5.1 A brief history
It is clear that thermodynamics as understood today has two, among many, deep
concepts at its very heart, namely, heat and temperature. The concept of specific
heat is what bridges these two. This is in the sense that specific heats tell us how a
certain amount of heat supplied to the system changes its temperature. Specific heats
have played decisive roles in so many fundamental developments including that of
thermodynamicsitself. They played a key role in the development of quantum theory,
and even today they continue to play a central role.
In fact, so central was the role played in the development ...