Specific heat

Also called Specific heat capacity, c

Specific heat is the energy needed to raise one kilogram of a material by one kelvin, measured in joules per kilogram per kelvin. A large specific heat means a small temperature change for the same energy.

The AP Physics 2 sheet prints

Q = mc\Delta T

and the rearrangement supplies both the meaning and the units: $c = \dfrac{Q}{m\Delta T}$ , so specific heat is measured in $\mathrm{J/(kg \cdot K)}$ .

Turn it round again for the comparison the exam actually asks about:

\Delta T = \frac{Q}{mc}

Hand two objects the same $Q$ and the one with the larger product $mc$ warms less. That product is an object's energy cost per kelvin.

Essential knowledge 9.5.A.2 calls $c$ an intrinsic property of the material, depending on the arrangement and interactions of its atoms. Intrinsic means independent of sample size: cut a copper block in half and each half has the same $c$ , while $Q$ halves because $m$ did.

Three details that decide marks.

$\Delta T$ is a difference, so kelvin and degrees Celsius give the same number. This is the one place in Unit 9 where the scale does not matter.
The boundary statement is one sentence: AP Physics 2 will model specific heat as independent of temperature. So $c$ comes out of any calculation as a constant, and a plot of $Q$ against $\Delta T$ for a fixed sample is a straight line of slope $mc$ .
No values are supplied. Neither the sheet nor the CED prints a table of specific heats, so a question that needs one states it in the stem.

The phrase "heat capacity" appears nowhere in the AP Physics 2 course description. Write the product as $mc$ and keep "specific heat" for $c$ alone.

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