What does a negative heat capacity of a calorimeter mean?
Category:
science
chemistry
For a negative heat capacity would imply that as you put more energy into a system, the system gets colder. Or as you take energy away from a system the system gets hotter.
Similarly one may ask, can a calorimeter heat capacity be negative?
Re: Heat capacity of a calorimeter Heat capacity is never negative.
Similarly, you may ask, is the heat capacity of a calorimeter always positive?
Yes, heat capacity always has a positive value. It is the amount of energy (heat) required to raise the temperature of the system. When talking about the specific heat capacity of solids, it has the units of .
If the calorimeter constant is negative, it means that it will release heat when heated up, or absorb heat when cold. water is inserted, which is not logical.