Water Analogy

We can think of the energy being transferred as volume of water. Consider two substances: one with a high heat capacity represented by 250 ml beakers and one with a low heat capacity represented by 100 ml beakers. When a beaker is full the temperature of the substance will increase by 1 degree.

We can see that 2 litres of water will fill 8 of the 250 ml beakers or 20 of the 100ml beakers meaning the same amount of energy can raise the temperature of the first substance by 8 degrees or the second by 20 degrees.