Specific Heat: cp and cv

Earlier, we looked at the specific heat ratio, and we also looked at the variation in specific heat with temperature here and here. Today we’ll look in a little more detail at the properties constant volume and constant pressure specific heat.

Error using constant specific heat

In the last post we looked at picking a value to use for c_p when we make the constant specific heat approximation.  In this post, we’ll look more closely at the error involved in that approximation in order to have a feel for when it is appropriate, or not, to use it.

Which cp to use?

In an earlier post we talked about the variation of specific heat with temperature.  Today we’ll explore that variation in more depth and consider the choice of temperature at which to evaluate specific heat.