Heat Capacity
The heat capacity at constant volume of n = 1 / R mole of any gas (so that n R = 1 J·K−1), including an ideal gas is:
This is the dimensionless heat capacity at constant volume, which is generally a function of temperature due to intermolecular forces. For moderate temperatures, the constant for a monoatomic gas is while for a diatomic gas it is . It is seen that macroscopic measurements on heat capacity provide information on the microscopic structure of the molecules.
The heat capacity at constant pressure of 1/R mole of ideal gas is:
where is the enthalpy of the gas.
Sometimes, a distinction is made between an ideal gas, where and could vary with temperature, and a perfect gas, for which this is not the case.
Read more about this topic: Ideal Gas
Famous quotes containing the words heat and/or capacity:
“I remember my youth and the feeling that will never come back any more—the feeling that I could last for ever, outlast the sea, the earth, and all men; the deceitful feeling that lures us on to joys, to perils, to love, to vain effort—to death; the triumphant conviction of strength, the heat of life in the handful of dust, the glow in the heart that with every year grows dim, grows cold, grows small, and expires—and expires, too soon, too soon—before life itself.”
—Joseph Conrad (1857–1924)
“Taste is nothing but an enlarged capacity for receiving pleasure from works of imagination.”
—William Hazlitt (1778–1830)