What is the specific heat of seawater?

[lucy12h]

I'm confused about what units are used, and what the specific heat of seawater is defined at?

I found a website quoting, 'specific heat is about 3850 J/(kg C)'

Is this correct, with these units?

 

[AlephZero]

See here:
http://www.kayelaby.npl.co.uk/general_physics/2_7/2_7_9.html

 

[lucy12h]

Thanks for the link..

What I am confused about is where it says ... at 0degrees celsius.. and then the units are J/Kg/K..

So why does it use kelvin if its talking about celsius?

 

[Vagn]

A change of temperature of 1 degree celsius is equivalent to a change of 1 kelvin, so where an equation cpnsiders a change in temperature, the two units are interchangable.

 

[Dadface]

Although the units of celsius and Kelvin are interchangeable for specific heat capacity it is generally good practise,in that it makes certain problems easier,to use Kelvin when dealing with heat and thermodynamics.

 

[Studiot]

Thank you , AZ for the link, I didn't know K&L was available online.

Now any takers to create a space in my library?

 

[nasu]

Thanks for the link..

What I am confused about is where it says ... at 0degrees celsius.. and then the units are J/Kg/K..

So why does it use kelvin if its talking about celsius?

They two units for temperature are used for two different things. As you can see from the table, the specific heat depends on temperature. They give the value for two different temperatures: 0 and 20 degrees Celsius. The reason they use Celsius may be that is more common, I suppose.
The unit for specific heat can be either J/(kg K) or J/(kg Degree C). They are equivalent.

 

[lucy12h]

thanks everyone, i understand now.