The heat capacity of an object is the amount of energy needed to increase the temperature of a substance 1 degree, so the units are J / ^oC.  Heat capacity is an extensive property, so a large object has a larger heat capacity than a small object made from the same material.

Heat Capacity = heat supplied / temperature rise

The heat capacity of an object depends on both the quantity and types of matter in the object.  Generally in order to compare heat capacties of different substances we must relate heat capacity to the amount of material in question. One way to do this is to refer to a mole of substance, the heat capacity then becomes the Molar heat capacity.  This is of course mainly applicable to materials that are pure substances.  A more useful procedure is to compare heat capacities for one gram of material.  This is called the specific heat capacity or simply specific heat. Specific heat is the quantity of heat required to raise the temperature of one gram of material one degree Celsius (or one kelvin).  We get the specific heat when we divide the heat capacity of a material by its mass.

Specific heat = heat capacity / mass = C / m

To find the heat q required to raise the temperature of a sample by a certain amount, you multiply the specific heat of the substance, s, by the mass in grams, m, and the change in temperature,  t.

q = s x m x  t

Suppose we wish to know the final temperature of a object after a given quantity of heat has been added to it. We can use the equation just above to calculate t which, since we have added heat will be the increase in temperature. Once we have the value of the temperature increase we can add that to the initial temperature giving us the final temperature. Had we removed heat from the object or cooled it we would have subtracted the t from the initial temperature to obtain a lower final temperature.