Boiling water is changing in to steam. The specific heat of boiling water is:

The correct answer is option 3) i.e. Infinity

CONCEPT:

• Specific heat capacity: It is the amount of heat required to raise the temperature of a unit mass of a substance by one degree Celcius.
  • Specific heat capacity (c) is related to the heat (Q) and temperature (T) as follows

\(\Rightarrow c=\frac{Δ Q}{mΔ T}\)

• Boiling: The change of a liquid to its gaseous state upon heating at a constant temperature is called boiling.

EXPLANATION:

• During boiling when water is converted to steam, the temperature remains constant as the heat energy is utilized to change the state of matter.
• At this point, since the temperature is constant, ΔT = 0
• Specific heat capacity,

\(\Rightarrow c=\frac{Δ Q}{mΔ T} = \frac{Δ Q}{m\times 0} = \frac{1}{0} = \infty\)

• Thus, the specific heat of boiling water is infinity.