What Is The Specific Heat Of An Egg

What is physical significance of specific heat?

Heat capacity or thermal capacity is a measurable physical quantity equal to the ratio of the heat added to (or removed from) an object to the resulting temperature change. ... Specific heat is the amount of heat needed to raise the temperature of one kilogram of mass by 1 kelvin.The heat of water is the amount of heat needed to raise its temperature a certain amount. One of water's most significant properties is that it takes a lot of heat to it to make it get hot. Precisely, water has to absorb 4,184 Joules of heat for the temperature of one kilogram of water to increase 1 degree celsius (°C). For comparison sake, it only takes 385 Joules of heat to raise 1 kilogram of copper 1°C.If you leave a bucket of water outside in the sun in summer it will certainly get warm, but not hot enough to boil an egg. But, if you walk barefoot on the black asphalt of a street here in Atlanta, Georgia in August, you'll burn your feet. Dropping an egg on the metal of my car hood on an August day will produce a fried egg. Metals have a much lower specific heat capacity than water. If you've ever held onto a needle and put the other end in a flame you know how fast the needle gets hot, and how fast the heat is moved through the length of the needle to your finger. Not so with water.The high heat capacity of water has a great deal to do with regulating extremes in the environment. For instance, our fish in the pond is indeed happy because the heat capacity of the water in her pond above means the temperature of the water will stay relatively the same from day to night. She doesn't have to worry about either turning on her air conditioner or putting on her woolen flipper gloves.This same concept can be expanded to a world-wide scale. The oceans and lakes help regulate the temperature ranges that billions of people experience in their towns and cities. Water surrounding or near cities take longer to heat up and longer to cool down than do land masses, so cities near the oceans will tend to have less change and less extreme temperatures than inland cities. This property of water is one reason why states on the coast and in the center can differ so much in temperature patterns.

Which has the higher specific heat capacity: a hard boiled egg, or a boiled potato?

Firstly, specific heat capacity doesn't really play a big factor in getting your fingers burnt! IQ would be the biggest variable, followed closely by heat transfer.Assume that the major source of heat is through conduction. Assume that the temperatures are the same (valid if the egg isn't touching the edges of the pan).Assume that the areas are pretty much the same.So the value you really should be looking for is a thermal conductivity.Potatoes:Thermal conductivity (TC) of potato was calculated from heat penetration into cylindrical samples between 50 and 100°C. TC ranged from 0.545 to 0.957 W/m°C for potatoes (cv Kennebec) specific gravity 1070 kg/m3 and moisture 80%. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/d...Egg Shell:Assume Calcium Carbonate. Thermal conductivity of 2.25 W/mChttp://books.google.com/books?id...Looks like the egg should be the burnmaster in this case.