Difference Between Heat And Heat Transfer

Works Cited Although heat and temperature are correlated terms in daily speech, there is a crucial difference in their definitions in the study of physics. In specific, heat is a form of thermal energy that can be transformed from one object to another; whereas temperature is a measurement of the average kinetic energy of the particles in a sample of matter (“Methods of Heat Transfer”, n.d.). Heat transfer indicates the movement of heat energy from one place to another caused by the difference in temperature (“Chapter 16: Heat Transfer”, n.d.). Heat will always move from the hotter object to the cooler one, until they both reach the same temperature, indicating thermal equilibrium (“Chapter 16: Heat Transfer”, n.d.). There are three primary mechanisms for heat transfer, including convection, conduction, and radiation.

Convection occurs when the atoms move from one location to another, while carrying the heat with them (“Chapter 16: Heat Transfer”, n.d.). This mixing motion of convection is due to buoyancy (“Chapter 16: Heat Transfer”, n.d.). Boiling water in a pot is a practical example of heat transfer by convection. The bubbles of water represent the hotter parts rising to a cooler area of water at the top of the pot (“How Does Heat Travel?”, n.d.). These hot water molecules will displace the cooler water that is originally present at the top of the pot. Simultaneously, the cooler water will move towards the bottom of the pot, where it is heated again (“Methods of Heat Transfer”, n.d.). This cycle results in a continuous circulation of heat getting transferred to cooler areas (“How Does Heat Travel?”, n.d.). Additionally, Figure 1 is a visual demonstration of hot oil transferring heat out of the pan by convection (“How Does Heat Travel?”,