Quote:
Originally posted by gone_fishin
Water has a high specific heat index. This means that water can absorb a lot of heat before it begins to get hot. Inversely does this mean that a lot of energy needs to be removed from the water before it begins to cool off?
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Assuming we're ignoring quantum mechanics...
There is no sudden transition going on where water absorbs a certain amount of heat and then steps in temperature.
Water "begins to get hot" when the slightest amount of heat is added, and "begins to cool off" when the the slightest amount of heat is removed.
Temperature - A measure of the average kinetic energy of the particles in a sample of matter, expressed in terms of units or degrees designated on a standard scale. (From
www.dictionary.com)
Simple conservation of energy dictates that if adding X amount of heat changes the temperature of a quanity of water from A to B, then removing the same amount of heat will change the temperature from B to A.