What is meant by "sensible heat"?

Prepare for the Master Mechanical License Test with flashcards and multiple-choice questions. Each question includes hints and detailed explanations. Get confident for your exam!

Sensible heat refers to the quantity of heat that can be sensed or measured by a change in temperature. When a substance is heated or cooled, the temperature changes, and this is indicative of the heat being added or removed from the system. It is the heat that one can feel, such as the warmth of a heated object or the chill of something cold, and is directly related to the temperature of the material.

In contrast, other forms of heat, such as latent heat, do not result in a temperature change but are responsible for phase changes, like melting or evaporation. This distinction makes sensible heat crucial in applications like HVAC, where temperature changes are a key input for calculations and system design. Thus, the correct understanding of sensible heat is its association with measurable temperature changes, making it a foundational concept in thermodynamics.

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