system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
What determines a material's heat capacity? Why is water's so high?

This question came to me at 1:30AM in bed thinking about *why* we actually boil stuff in water: it has high heat capacity so it spreads the heat evenly and stays hot after we turn off the heat (or put out the fire)

But yeah water seems like an unassuming molecule if that makes sense, what makes it able to take in so much energy before changing temperature?
gpt
Heat capacity is heat energy being stored in

(i) molecular or atomic movement

(ii) molecular vibrations, rotations etc

(iii) breaking bonds

&#x200B;

As others have noted most liquids just have (i) and (ii) to contribute. Water and ammonia can store energy by revesibly breaking hydrogen bonds as well.