the discovery of certain thermal properties of substances such as calorific value, specific heat or
latent heat in physics and chemistry. The instrument used is called a calorimeter and it consists essentially of apparatus which allows the substance to be burnt and the heat transferred to a surrounding body of water, enabling the rise in temperature and therefore the heat output to be measured.Taken from Dictionary of Science
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Calorimetry is the science of measuring the heat of chemical reactions or physical changes. Calorimetry involves the use of a calorimeter. The word calorimetry is derived from the Latin word calor, meaning heat. Scottish physician and scientist Joseph Black, who was the first to recognize the distinction between heat and temperature, is said to be the founder of calorimetry.
Indirect calorimetry calculates heat that living organisms produce from their production of carbon dioxide and nitrogen waste (frequently ammonia in aquatic organisms, or urea in terrestrial ones), OR from their consumption of oxygen. Lavoisier noted in 1780 that heat production can be predicted from oxygen consumption this way, using multiple regression. The Dynamic Energy Budget theory explains why this procedure is correct. Of course, heat generated by living organisms may also be measured by direct calorimetry, in which the entire organism is placed inside the calorimeter for the measurement.
The specific heat formula is as follows:
where
- q is energy, or heat,
- m is mass,
- c is specific heat capacity,
- ΔT is change in temperature.
