"Heat is the energy flow from a high temperature to a low temperature. Heat will ALWAYS flow from hot to cold. Some objects are more resistant to lose heat energy than others. Objects that very resistant to losing heat (or in other words, objects that retain heat best) have a high specific heat capacity. Specific heat is like an objects 'thermal inertia' it is an object's resistance to an change in temperature. Water has a very high specific heat; it takes a long time for it to lose heat and it also takes a long period of time to gain heat. Hence, it is very resistant to a change in temperature. Steel, however, will heat up and cool down at a much faster rate. It has a low resistance to change in temperature, thus it has a low specific heat."