Physics 312 Lecture: "Calorimetry and Latent Heat" May 3, 1998

Calorimetry carefully measures the change in temperature of a substance immersed in a closed chamber
The heat gained by the chamber equals the heat lost by the substance
One can identify substances by their specific heat capacity
When materials undergo phase changes, they may gain or lose lots of energy without changing temperature; the energy goes into creating (or breaking) inter-molecular bonds
Each phase change of a substance has associated with it a latent heat, which describes the amount of energy gained (or lost) per kilogram as the material changes phase
One must very carefully add together changes in internal energy of material due to changes in temperature, and due to changes in phase

This lecture discusses material in Chapter 20 of Serway.