>> Now I simply *must* know if the specific heat capacity of oil is 
>> significantly different from water...
> 
> I think it's actually lower than water.

According to Wikipedia (which, obviously, is never wrong), the specific 
heat of water is about 4.1 J per g per degree, whereas for parafin wax 
(the only organic compound I could find) it's 2.2 - roughly half.

I'd be interested to know what it is for typical animal fat. And also 
for sugar, actually.

At this point, I hypothesize that these substances remain hotter than 
hot water due to the lack of evatorative cooling...

>> (Every time I make cheese toasties, the cheese inside is hotter than 
>> lava! They should fill storage heaters with that stuff or something...)
> 
> They use it for storage heaters and cooling electrical stuff because it 
> doesn't boil at 100 degrees and is an insulator.

I would imagine the fact that it doesn't corrode metal is a fact too... ;-)

-- 
http://blog.orphi.me.uk/
http://www.zazzle.com/MathematicalOrchid*

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