Heat capacity against specific heat capacity, the method of mixtures done cleanly, latent heats and the heating curve read properly, evaporation against boiling, and the triple point of water.
Unit 2 carries 7 of the 50 physics marks; with six chapters sharing them, this one averages a little over one (MEC publishes weights by unit, not by chapter). It is the most numerical chapter of the three that open the unit, and the arithmetic is always the same two formulae — Q = mcΔθ while the temperature changes, Q = mL while it does not.
The MEC scope lines are: Heat capacity and specific heat capacity; Latent heats; Triple point. The headings below are those three points, in MEC's order.
Three ways it is asked: recall (the specific heat capacity of water, the latent heat of fusion of ice, the coordinates of the triple point); understanding (why the temperature stops rising during melting, why evaporation cools, why a burn from steam is worse than one from boiling water, how to read a heating curve); application (a method-of-mixtures final temperature, a specific heat capacity from a calorimeter experiment, the mass of steam needed to warm a bucket of water, the total heat to turn ice at −20 °C into steam).
Upgrade to unlock this and every premium study note, formula sheet and high-yield summary — plus unlimited mocks and full solutions.
See the plansHeat, Temperature and Thermometers: What Each One Can Read
Heat against temperature against internal energy, the scales and the −40 coincidence, the zeroth law, conduction, convection and radiation, and the three thermometers MEC names side by side.
Heat and Thermodynamics: Unit Map and Reading Order
What the Heat and thermodynamics unit covers, how many of the 50 Physics questions it carries, and the order to read its six chapter notes in.
Thermal Expansion: One Coefficient, Three Dimensions
Why α : β : γ is 1 : 2 : 3, how a hole and a bimetallic strip behave, why a pendulum clock loses time in summer, and the real-against-apparent expansion of a liquid in its vessel.
Ideal Gas: Where Pressure and Temperature Come From
The kinetic-theory assumptions, P = ⅓ρc̄² and what it proves, the three molecular speeds and their ratio, energy as (3/2)k_BT per molecule, degrees of freedom, and C_p − C_v = R.