A metal frying pan's handle becomes hot after sitting on a lit stove burner for several minutes.
What is conduction?
This is the state of matter in which particles are packed most tightly and can only vibrate in place.
What is a solid?
This term names the total energy of motion of all the particles in an object.
What is thermal energy?
This kitchen appliance heats food using radiation instead of direct contact with a hot surface.
What is a microwave (oven)?
This is the type of heat transfer happening when you hold a warm mug of hot chocolate and your hands warm up.
What is conduction?
Sunlight travels across empty space and warms the surface of a planet with no atmosphere at all.
What is radiation?
This is what happens to the average speed of an object's particles as its temperature increases.
What is that it increases (the particles move faster)?
This term describes thermal energy specifically while it is being transferred from one place to another.
What is heat?
This is why the air near the ceiling of a room feels warmer than the air near the floor.
What is convection?
This is the term for the total energy of all the moving particles in an object.
What is thermal energy?
A pot of soup develops swirling currents as the hotter soup near the bottom rises and the cooler soup near the top sinks.
What is convection?
This is what happens to a group of particles' spacing as they gain energy and speed up — and it's the reason warm air becomes less dense.
What is that the particles spread farther apart?
This measurement describes the average energy of motion of an object's particles, rather than their total combined energy.
What is temperature?
This is how you feel the sun's heat on your skin, even though the sun is millions of miles away.
What is radiation? (heat travels through empty space — no touching needed)
This is why a metal spoon left in a pot of soup gets too hot to touch, but a wooden spoon stays cool.
What is [metal is a better conductor than wood]? (metal conducts heat quickly; wood is an insulator)
You quickly pull your hand back after brushing your fingers against a hot oven rack.
What is conduction?
Explain why particles in a gas can carry out convection, but particles in a solid cannot.
What is that gas particles are free to change position, while solid particles are locked in place and can only vibrate?
This law states that energy can never be created or destroyed, only changed from one form into another
What is the law of conservation of energy?
This is why a metal playground slide feels hot on a sunny day when you touch it.
What is conduction? (heat transfers directly from the hot metal to your skin)
This happens to the space between particles when a substance is heated and changes from a liquid to a gas
What is [the particles spread out/move farther apart]? (heating increases particle spacing and speed)
A weather balloon high in the upper atmosphere still receives warmth from the Sun, despite the surrounding air being extremely thin and cold.
What is radiation?
Two identical containers hold the same gas at the same temperature, but one container is twice the size of the other and holds twice as many particles. Explain which container has greater thermal energy and why.
What is the larger container, because thermal energy depends on the total energy of all the particles combined, not just their average speed (temperature)?
This is the state two objects reach once heat stops flowing between them, because they've reached the same temperature
What is thermal equilibrium?
This is why you feel a breeze at the beach, with cool air blowing in from the water toward the land.
What is convection? (warm air over the sand rises, and cooler air from over the water moves in to take its place)
This is the type of heat transfer that lets you feel warmth from a campfire without touching the flames.
What is radiation? (heat travels through the air as energy waves, no contact needed)