| For one thing, it has an unusually high specific heat, or
heat capacity. Heat capacity, you should remember, is the amount of heat
or the number of calories required to raise the temperature of one gram of that substance
by one degree Celsius. Water's high heat capacity means that is can absorb or lose a
relatively large amount of heat without undergoing a large change in temperature. Since
many biological functions will not take place outside a narrow range of temperatures,
water's ability to absorb and lose heat without a large temperature change provides an
organism with a protection against the ill effects of a large external temperature change.
Another way to say this is that large amount of water in our bodies stabilizes the
temperature of our bodies. |
Heat Capacity
(cal/gºC) |
| water |
1.0 |
| CCl4 |
0.2 |
| diethyl ether |
0.6 |
| ethanol |
0.6 |
| acetone |
0.5 |
| benzene |
0.4 |
|
