The Cool Physics of Heat

HEAT: A transfer of energy due to a

difference in temperature.
Slide show and images by Colin McAllister.
colin.mcallister@ymail.com
Students are invited to edit this work according to the Creative
Commons license on the References and Copyright slide.

Created at Curtin University of Technology, Sarawak, Malaysia.

 Preface
• An introductory outline of the Physics of Heat.
• I created this presentation at Curtin Sarawak Malaysia as a basis for
Foundation Physics students and others to edit and expand.
• Do you have a story involving heat that you would like to contribute to this
presentation? Students are invited to edit this work according to the Creative
Commons license on the References and Copyright slide. You may add
photos from your camera phone that illustrate a physical phenomena, or add
a description of any physical process that involves heat or temperature.
Changes should conform to academic practice; please do not insert images
that are protected by copyright, or paraphrase sentences from Physics text
books. Add a slide at the end with your name, email, the date and citing any
references.
• Except where otherwise noted, this work is licensed under the Creative
Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.5 Malaysia License.
• By: Colin McAllister, teaching Physics in the School of Foundation &
Continuing Studies, at Curtin University of Technology, Sarawak, Malaysia.
The Cool Physics of Heat

The combustion of gas in air is a source of heat.

 The Cool Physics of Heat
• Did someone throw cold water on your idea?
• Did you get your fingers burned in a business deal?
• These two idioms show that heat is a macroscopic
phenomena that we are all familiar with.
• Heat exchange occurs in all man-made and natural
systems.
• The Perpetual Motion Machine does not exist!
• Every activity causes energy to be converted to heat.
• Physics explains the macroscopic properties of heat in
terms of the microscopic motion of molecules.
• Every science and every branch of engineering uses
measurements of energy and temperature to quantify
thermal properties.
 Heat as Energy Transfer
• HEAT is the energy transferred from one
object to another because of the
difference in temperature.
• Heat flows from hot to cold.
• Units of heat: calorie, kilocalorie, Calorie
and Joule.
• Physicists use the SI unit: Joule or J
• Temperature is measured in oC, oF or oK
 Conservation of Energy
• Heat is equivalent to work done.
• Work Done is Force x Distance (parallel)
• Friction converts mechanical energy to
heat. How can we reduce unwanted friction?
• The brakes on a vehicle convert the
kinetic energy of the vehicle to heat
energy in the brake pads, disk or drum.
• Excessive braking wastes petrol. Explain
this in terms of the physics involved.
 Internal Energy
• The internal energy of a material is due to the
motion of molecules.
• The temperature of a material is a measure of its
internal energy.
• Molecules in a solid or liquid are restricted, so
their motion is in the form of vibration.
• Molecules in a gas or are free to move around,
and have Kinetic Energy.
• When internal energy flows from one place to
another place, it is known as heat.
 Specific Heat

The specific heat capacity of water determines the energy needed to heat it.
 Specific Heat
• Specific heat capacity, also known simply as
specific heat, is the measure of the heat energy
required to increase the temperature of a unit
quantity of a substance by a certain temperature
interval. (wikipedia.org)
• In a solid, the rise in temperature is due to the
molecules vibrating at larger amplitude. In a gas,
the rise in temperature is due to the molecules
moving at faster speeds.
 Latent Heat

The Strokkur geyser Geothermal heat

in Iceland ejects a changes some
jet of water 60 to underground
100 feet into the air. water from
liquid to gas,
increasing the
volume and
pressure,
powering the
eruption

Boiling water undergoes a phase change from liquid to gas.

 Latent Heat
• Latent Heat is the amount of energy in the form
of heat released or absorbed by a substance
during a change of phase state (i.e. solid, liquid,
or gas), – also called a phase transition
(wikipedia.org)
• Phase Transitions that release heat:
condensation, freezing and deposition (frost).
• Phase Transitions that absorb heat: melting,
evaporation, boiling, sublimation.
• (Some materials, e.g. CO2 undergo sublimation:
changing directly from a solid to a gas.)
 Heat Transfer Mechanisms
• Convection: heat carried by the flow of a
fluid, such as air or water.
• Thermal Conduction: flow of thermal
energy through a material.
• Thermal Radiation: electromagnetic
radiation due to temperature.
• Thermal Radiation is key to explaining
how global warming occurs.
 Convection

A fan drives transfer of heat by forced convection of

air.
 Convection
• Convection involves the movement of a fluid between
two regions of different temperature. The fluid may be a
gas (e.g. air) or a liquid (e.g. water).
• In “free convection” the movement of the fluid is due to
the difference in temperature between the regions. The
fluid expands in the warmer region, causing its density to
be lower. It contracts to its original density in the cooler
region. Lower density fluid will rise and higher density
fluid will fall under gravity, causing the fluid to flow as a
current. E.g. ocean currents.
• In forced convention, the fluid is already moving due to a
pressure difference, perhaps driven by a pump or a fan.
• The effectiveness of thermal conduction depends on the
viscosity and on the specific heat of the fluid.
 Thermal Conduction
• Conduction is the transfer of heat within a material, by
the random transfer of kinetic energy from molecules
with a high amplitude of vibration to neighbouring
molecules with a lower amplitude of vibration.
• Metals contain many free electrons, known as
conduction-band electrons. These contribute to the
conduction of heat in metals.
• The thermal conductivity of a material is a measure of
how well it conducts heat.
• Copper and Aluminium have a high thermal conductivity.
• Air has a low thermal conductivity. Insulating materials,
like polystyrene foam, have a high air content.
 Thermal Radiation
• Every object emits thermal radiation from its surface due to its
temperature.
• Thermal radiation is electromagnetic radiation that is transmitted by
the electrons in the atoms of the radiating object.
• Everyday objects emit thermal radiation that is in the infrared region
of the electromagnetic spectrum.
• A hot object, like the filament of a light bulb, emits infrared and
visible thermal radiation.
• Thermal radiation is transmitted through air or through the vacuum
of space.
• Thermal radiation transports heat from a hotter surface to a cooler
surface, e.g. light from the surface of the Sun to the Earth.
• The thermal radiation inside an enclosed oven is at equilibrium,
because all the walls are at the same temperature.
 Global Warming

Huge tabular icebergs, calved from the ice shelf in the Southern Ocean's Weddell
Sea. (Photo courtesy of Mike Vecchione, NOAA National Marine Fisheries Service),
 Global Warming
• Thermal Radiation is key to explaining how Global
Warming occurs – The Greenhouse Effect.
• The average temperature of the Earth was constant
when the thermal radiation emitted into space, balanced
the solar energy absorbed
• Burning of fuel and destruction of forest increases the
quantity of greenhouse gases in the Earth’s atmosphere
• Greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide and methane are
so called because they behave like the glass that keeps
a greenhouse warm.
• Greenhouse gases absorb thermal radiation from the
Earth’s surface, causing the Earth to become warmer.
• A small increase in temperature causes many big
changes including melting polar ice and rising sea level.
 Heating and Cooling

The exhaust pipe of an internal combustion engine.

 Heating and Cooling
• Every gadget, from the thinnest mobile phone to the largest
electricity generating station, produces heat as a by-product.
• Architects use the physics of heat to design buildings that are
comfortable and that make efficient use of energy.
• Computer Engineers add cooling fins and fans to computers; to
remove the heat caused by currents inside the silicon chips.
• Materials scientists investigate existing materials and design new
materials with special thermal properties.
• When any space vehicle re-enters the Earth’s atmosphere, heat is
generated by the friction between the air and the vehicle.
• Tiles on the surface of the Space Shuttle are designed to insulate
the spacecraft from the high temperature of re-entry.
 Further Study of Heat
• Suggestions for further study include:
• The Kinetic Theory of Gases
• The Laws of Thermodynamics
• Statistical Thermodynamics
• Differential Equations of Heat Conduction
• Phonons and Lattice Vibrations
• Temperature Regulation of the Human Body
• How to Overclock a Motherboard
• Aerogel, also known as Frozen Smoke
• HVAC Employment Opportunities
• Cryogenics, the physics and engineering of
temperatures below -150 oC.
 References and Copyright
• Slide show and images (cc) 2008 by Colin McAllister,
colin.mcallister@ymail.com, teaching at Curtin University
of Technology, Sarawak, Malaysia.
• Except where otherwise noted, this work is licensed
under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.5
Malaysia License. To view a copy of this license, visit
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5/my/deed.en_GB
• Students are invited to edit or contribute to this slide show, in
accordance with the above license.
• Ref: D.C. Giancoli, Physics Principles with Applications, published
by Prentice Hall.
• Ref: www.wikipedia.org for some definitions.
• Iceberg photo: http://publicdomainclip-art.blogspot.com/