Specific Heat

The higher the specific heat, the harder it is to heat or cool an object right?

Water has a higher specific heat, which makes it harder to heat up than asphalt right?

So what is the elemental combination which yields the highest specific heat and do we use these materials as shields?

Also, I remember how salt lowers the freezing point of water from 32 degrees fahrenheit to something lower.

What would happen if the specific heat of the planet mars was raised and the freezing point of water was lowered?

specific heat is not a function of th elements a compound is made up of. Tho I do think that graphite is very refractory (ie stays cold to the touch even when heated for a while) and new 'refridgerants' are speculatively theorized as being made up of carbon nano-tubules.

How can the specific heat of an entire planet be lowered? Has it ever even been calculated for a planet? As far as lowering the freezing point of water there, it'd be accomplished by adding solutes, like salt. A better way to melt any water would be to increase heat retention of the planet and raise the tempurature thru greenhouse gases, I would guess that'd be simpler and more cost effective than mixing salt with the possibly buried ice.

[edit on 15-2-2005 by Nygdan]

Just depends on how much energy you need to break the inter molecular bonds.

I also noticed that whenever i stick something on tin foil(aluminium wateva)
and put it under the grill for ages, it NEVER heats up above anything hotter than i cant i hold. Probably coz its reflective, but just shows how electron configs can raise the Specific heat capacity of the molecular bonds right?

[edit on 15-2-2005 by quiksilver]