Latent heat and specific heat
Calor latente y calor específico (calorimetría)
- Date
- 1762 · confidence high
- Place
- Glasgow, Scotland, United Kingdom
- Credited to
- Joseph Black
- People
- 👤 Joseph Black1728–1799
- Field
- Matter & energy
What was discovered
Melting ice or evaporating water absorbs heat without changing temperature (latent heat), and each substance needs a different amount of heat per degree (specific heat). Black is the first to separate the concepts of heat and temperature and founds calorimetry.
Watt worked as an instrument maker at the University of Glasgow and collaborated with Black.
What it led to
- Thermodynamics
- Steam engine with separate condenser (Watt)
- Lavoisier and Laplace's caloric theory
- Physics of phase changes
Built on
- Thermometer and temperature scalesc. 1593 (termoscopio) / 1714 (Fahrenheit) / 1742 (Celsius)
- Fahrenheit's thermometer and the Celsius scale
- Fahrenheit's supercooling experiments
Made possible
- Lavoisier and Laplace ice calorimeter1782-1783
- Dulong-Petit law1819
- James Watt's separate condenser (1765)
- Refrigeration