Message-Id: <l03102800b16511644aa0@[153.90.236.25]>
In-Reply-To: <4315edee.353e8d49@aol.com>
Date: Thu, 23 Apr 1998 10:02:07 -0600
To: pinhole@exploratorium.edu
From: Steven Eiger <eiger@montana.edu>
Subject: Re: Specific Heat of Ice
Anne, Regarding the specific heat of ice; first, I am not an expert on this
at all. As heat enters the ice it is distributed in various forms of
kinetic motion such as bond rotation, spinning, vibrating, etc; in ice, the
molecules are constrained in their movements somewhat by their hydrogen
bonds which are much longer lived than in liquid water. The definition we
often use about random translational kinetic energy I believe is most
accurate for monatomic gases,and other such things which are uncommon so I
am unsure of which motions exactly can add to a temperature increase.
Anyway the incoming heat is taken up by various motions that the molecules
can undergo. I can envision the water molecules in an ice molecule not
being able to rotate, this would force the molecules to jiggle back and
forth more which is probably most closely associated with the rise in
temperature. I guess the bottom line is that the ice molecules can not
move as freely as the liquid ones, thus the incoming energy is distributed
in a set of motions which happen to lead to a greater increase in
temperature. I hope this is helpful and on the right track; I would sort
of like to hear a better answer so I can better understand which types of
kinetic energies correlate best with the rise in temperatures.
Steven Eiger, Ph.D.
Departments of Biology and the WWAMI Medical Education Program
Montana State University - Bozeman
Bozeman, MT 59717-3460
Voice: (406) 994-5672
E-mail: eiger@montana.edu
FAX: (406) 994-3190