Which term describes heat that changes temperature but does not involve a phase change?

• A. Sensible Heat
• B. Latent Heat
• C. Specific Heat
• D. Thermal Conductivity

Answer: (A)

Sensible heat is heat that raises or lowers the temperature of a substance without changing its phase. When you add heat to a substance in a single phase, its temperature increases according to q = m c ΔT, where m is mass, c is the specific heat capacity, and ΔT is the temperature change. This contrasts with latent heat, which is the energy involved in changing from solid to liquid or liquid to gas, where the temperature stays the same during the phase transition. Specific heat describes how much heat is needed to raise the temperature per unit mass, influencing how much the temperature changes for a given amount of heat. Thermal conductivity, meanwhile, refers to how readily heat flows through a material, not to the heat itself.