Calorimetry is the science or act of measuring changes in
state variables of a body for the purpose of deriving the
heat transfer associated with changes of its state due for example to
chemical reactions,
physical changes, or
phase transitions under specified constraints. Calorimetry is performed with a
calorimeter. The word
calorimetry is derived from the Latin word
calor, meaning heat and the Greek word
μέτρον (metron), meaning measure. Scottish physician and scientist
Joseph Black, who was the first to recognize the distinction between
heat and
temperature, is said to be the founder of the science of calorimetry.