Heat Transfer

Conduction, Convection and Radiation

Heat Energy

Cup gets cooler while hand

gets warmer

The flow of thermal energy

from one object to another.

Heat always flows from

warmer to cooler
objects.
Ice gets warmer while
hand gets cooler
Ms. Hennessey

2015

Heat Transfer
Heat energy moves from a hotter to a
colder object using three methods.

Conduction
Convection
Radiation
Ms. Hennessey

2015

What do you Think?

Heat Transfer
2

Heat Transfer
3

Conduction
Stir a hot soup with a metal
spoon
Energy travels up the spoon
from the end in the hot soup
to the end in your hand
The movement of energy is felt
by the increasing temperature
This is heat transfer by
conduction
Ms. Hennessey

2015

What happens during Conduction?

During conduction the atoms and
molecules have higher average kinetic
energy
This is caused by the movement of
electrons in the material.
The more easily the electrons can move,
the better the conduction
Ms. Hennessey

2015

Conductors and Insulators

Metals have some electrons that are very
loosely bound to the atoms in the material
These electrons can move easily and can rapidly
pick up additional kinetic energy
Thus Metals are good conductors
Wood and plastic dont have loosely bound
electrons, so they are poor conductors and are
called Insulators.

Ms. Hennessey

2015

Conductors and Insulators

Insulator is a substance which does not allow heat to

pass through it easily.
Conductors are materials which all heat to pass through
them easily.

Convection
Is a phenomenon in fluids
Instead of having energy
moved by successive
collisions of electrons, atoms
and molecules, the fluid
itself is set into motion
called a current.
These moving fluid currents
are called convection
currents.
Ms. Hennessey

2015

Convection and Radiators

When the radiator heats
the air, it becomes less
dense and rises
Cool air moves in to
replace the air that rose
creating air flow
The rising air cools until
its density matches that
of the surrounding air
Ms. Hennessey

2015

Convection in Action
In convection, energy is
carried around by atoms
or
molecules - so it only
happens in liquids and
gases.

Hot water rises, cools, and falls.

Convection in Action
Convection explains why breezes come from
the ocean in the day and from the land at night
Sea Breeze

Ms. Hennessey

Land Breeze

2015

Radiation
Radiation is energy
carried by
electromagnetic waves
Light, microwaves, radio
waves, x-rays
The sun is our primary
source of Radiation

Ms. Hennessey

2015

Radiation
Objects can emit and absorb radiation
An object tries to find balance between its
between emitting and absorbing energy.
When something cant find balance, it
gets hotter or colder
Good emitters are also good absorbers

Ms. Hennessey

2015

Radiation
A good absorber
reflects very little
energy (i.e. a tar road)
A poor absorber
reflects a lot of energy
(i.e. snow that doesnt
melt in sunshine)

Ms. Hennessey

2015

Summary
Heat is transferred using three methods
Conduction, Convection and Radiation.
Conduction happens mainly in solids. Heat spreads by
conduction when atoms in a substance increase their
vibrations, and pass this energy on to those nearby.

Convection occurs in gases and liquids. Hot fluids rise,

cold fluids fall. Convection currents occur because heat is
lost from the rising fluid, cooling it down.

Heat radiation consists of infrared waves which travel at

the speed of light, in straight lines. Heat radiation can go in
any direction, even through a vacuum.

Heat Investigation 01

To Investigate the factors that determine the rate

at which heat is lost from different types of
drinking cups that contain hot liquid.