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Heat Energy
A Science AZ Physical Series
Word Count: 966
www.sciencea-z.com
Written by Felicia Brown
Heat
Energy
KEY ELEMENTS USED IN THIS BOOK
The Big Idea: One of the most important types of energy on Earth is
heat energy. A great deal of heat energy comes from the Suns light
hitting Earth. Other sources include geothermal energy, friction, and
even living things. Heat energy is the driving force behind everything
we do. This energy gives us the ability to run, dance, sing, and play.
We also use heat energy to warm our homes, cook our food, power
our vehicles, and create electricity.
Key words: cold, conduction, conductor, convection, energy, evaporate,
fire, friction, fuel, gas, geyser, heat energy, hot, insulation, insulator, lightning,
liquid, matter, particles, radiant energy, solid, Sun, temperature, thermometer,
transfer, volcano
Key comprehension skills: Cause and effect
Other suitable comprehension skills: Compare and contrast; classify information;
main idea and details; identify facts; elements of a genre; interpret graphs,
charts, and diagrams
Key reading strategy: Connect to prior knowledge
Other suitable reading strategies: Ask and answer questions; summarize;
visualize, using a table of contents and headings; using a glossary and
bold terms
Heat Energy
Written by Felicia Brown
www.sciencea-z.com
Heat Energy
Learning AZ
Written by Felicia Brown
All rights reserved.
www.sciencea-z.com
Photo Credits:
Front cover: iStockphoto.com/Julien Grondin; back cover, page 5: iStockphoto.com/
Arpad Benedek; title page, page 20 (left): iStockphoto.com/Anna Ziska; pages 3, 9, 20 (right):
Jupiterimages Corporation; page 4: iStockphoto.com/Nancy Louie; page 6 (left):
iStockphoto.com/Sreedhar Yedlapati; page 6 (right): iStockphoto.com/Diane Diederich;
page 7 (left): iStockphoto.com/Yuri Hnilazub; page 7 (right): iStockphoto.com/
Alexander Hafemann; pages 10, 11: iStockphoto.com/bubaone; page 13: iStockphoto.com/
Milorad Zaric; page 16 (top): iStockphoto.com/Mik111; page 16 (bottom right):
iStockphoto.com/Craig Veltri; page 16 (bottom left): iStockphoto.com/Amanda Rohde;
page 21 (top): Sheryl Shetler/ Learning AZ; page 21 (bottom): iCLIPART.com; page 22:
courtesy of NASA/JPL-Caltech
Illustration Credits:
pages 8, 12, 14, 15, 17, 18, 19: Cende Hill/ Learning AZ
3 4
Heat energy cooks these marshmallows.
Table of Contents
Introduction ...................................... 4
Sources of Heat Energy ................... 5
Temperature .................................... 10
Heat Moves Through Things........ 13
Conduction ...................................... 14
Convection ...................................... 17
Heat Energy and You ..................... 20
Glossary ........................................... 23
Index ................................................ 24
Introduction
Have you ever stood next to a
campre? Have you ever watched
soup boil? Then you have seen
and felt heat energy at work!
There are many kinds of energy. But
you use heat energy all the time.
In this book, you will learn where
heat energy comes from, how it
moves, and much more.
Sources of Heat Energy
Rub your hands together very fast.
Do they feel hot? The heat is made
from friction. Friction is what
happens when two objects rub
together. Friction is one way to
make heat!
5 6
Rubbing your hands and wearing warm clothing
help keep you warm.
Burning fuel is another way we
get heat. Gasoline is a kind of fuel.
When gasoline burns, it makes heat
energy. The heat energy is used to
make cars and trucks drive.
Electricity also makes heat energy.
Toasters, irons, and hair dryers use
electricity to make heat. Electric
furnaces heat homes and schools.
Fuel makes cars run and
makes electricity we use
every day.
Heat comes from nature, too.
Lightning is a natural source
of heat. And did you know that
the Earth has its own heat deep
underground? It is so hot in the
middle of the Earth that rocks melt.
Sometimes the melted rocks come
close to the surface and heat water
that shoots out of the ground. This
is called a geyser.
7
A lot of our energy comes from the
Sun. Have you ever stepped from
the shade into the sunlight and felt
warm? Sunlight is radiant energy.
Radiant energy comes in many
different forms. When sunlight
hits your skin, it changes to heat.
Another form of radiant energy
cooks the food in your microwave.
8
Nature can melt rocks, heat water underground, and make
gorgeous displays of heat energy.
Radiant energy
from the Sun
Suns energy
turns to heat
Earth absorbs
Suns energy
9
Here is a rule about heat energy.
Heat energy always moves from
warm to cool. When sunlight hits
the ground, it turns to heat. Then
the heat moves to the cool air. This
keeps the Earth warm.
10
The heat energy of each particle affects
how fast it moves.
Temperature
Everything you can touch (all matter)
is made up of tiny particles, too
small to see. These particles are
always moving, just a little, tiny bit.
Every object also has heat energy.
How much heat energy an object
has affects how quickly
its particles move.
Dark things take in more of the Suns
energy than light-colored things.
Thats why light-colored clothes keep
you cooler on a hot summer day.
So which would feel
warmer: a white rock
or a black rock?
We use temperature to tell how much
heat energy things have. The hotter
something is, the more heat energy it
has. The more heat energy it has, the
higher its temperature. The higher its
temperature, the faster its particles
move. The less heat energy something
has, the colder its temperature. The
colder its temperature, the more
slowly its particles move.
We use a thermometer to
measure temperature.
11 12
For example, the temperature of
boiling water is 100 Celsius. Its
particles move very fast. The
temperature of ice is 0 Celsius.
Its particles move slowly.
Water freezes at 0 Celsius, and it boils at 100 Celsius.
A thermometer can tell you how hot or cold the water is.
Thermometer comes from two words. Thermo
means heat. Meter means an object used
to measure. So a thermometer is an object
used to measure how hot something is. When particles have more heat, they
move faster.
Gas: Particles are
farthest apart. Heat
moves slowest
through a gas.
Heat Moves Through Things
You know that the temperature of
something can change. Pizza can
be hot from the oven. Later, the
pizza gets cold. The pizza changes
temperature because heat energy
moves through it. Heat energy
moves through solids (like pizza),
and liquids and gases (like water
and air). Heat energy always moves
from a warmer thing to a cooler
thing. But it moves differently
through solids than it moves
through liquids and gases.
13 14
Conduction
Heat moves easiest through solids.
This is because the particles in solids
are closer together than the particles
in air or liquid. Heat moves through
solids by conduction.
Heat moves through particles in pizza.
Solid: Particles are
closest together, in a
pattern. Heat moves
easily through.
Liquid: Particles
are farther apart.
Heat moves more
slowly through
liquid than gas.
15 16
A good conductor
is something that
heat can move
through easily.
Metal is a good
conductor. Pots
and pans are
made of metal
because it helps food cook fast.
A good insulator is something that
heat cannot move through easily.
Wood and plastic are good
insulators. Heat energy moves
slowly in these
solids. Pan
handles are
made of wood
and plastic
because they
stay cool.
What happens to the particles in this
metal rod when they touch re?
First, they get heat energy from the
re. The heat energy makes them
move fast. The hotter particles bump
into other, cooler particles in the rod.
This makes the cooler particles heat
up and move faster. The heat energy
transfers up the rod, until all its
particles are hot. In time, the rod will
be too hot to hold!
Travel mugs keep heat in,
but oven mitts keep heat out.
A metal pot is a good conductor.
Particles higher up
are still cool and slow.
Particles in the
fire get hot and
move fast.
17 18
Convection
Lets look at how heat moves
through a liquid, like soup. A hot
pot heats the soup at the bottom
rst. The heat makes these soup
particles move fast. They spread
out. When the particles spread out,
the soup gets lighter! So the soup at
the bottom of the pot is lighter than
the soup at the top.
Now the soup at the top of the pot
is cooler. It is also heavier. So it
sinks! The soup pushes the lighter,
hotter soup up to the top. This is
how soup churns and boils and
makes the soup hot!
cool soup
fire heats the pan
particles close
and slow moving
particles far apart
and moving fast
soup heats up
19 20
Heat Energy and You
Your body has ways to keep cool
and stay warm. When you get
too hot, you sweat. As sweat
evaporates from your skin, it takes
heat from your body. Now your
skin has a lower temperature and
your body feels cooler. To stay
warm, you wear thick clothes.
They help keep in the heat.
Now lets learn how heat warms gas,
like air. When the ground warms air
above it, the air rises. The heavier,
cooler air from above sinks and
pushes the warmer air up. Cooler air
is always sinking to push up warmer
air. The moving air is called wind!
Heat energy moving through liquid
or gas is called convection.
Your body needs to stay at about the same temperature,
whether its hot or cold outside.
Energy from the Sun turns to heat when it is absorbed by the
ground. Then heat from the ground warms the air above it.
Cooler air from above pushes the air up.
21 22
We put insulation in our homes to
help keep out the hot air during the
summer. Insulation also helps keep
in the warm air during the winter.
You have learned many things
about heat. Heat is one kind of
energy. Heat is an energy that we
use each day. Heat moves through
solids, liquids, and gases. Heat
moves from hot things to cool
things. Temperature is how we
tell how hot or cold something is.
Heat energy comes from many
places, such as fuels, the sun,
and volcanoes.
Imagine being lost outside in the woods.
You have no matches to start a re
and it is cold. How would you stay warm?
Most of our energy comes from the Sun.
P o s s i b l e a n s w e r s : b u i l d a s h e l t e r f r o m
b r a n c h e s a n d b r u s h , r u b s t i c k s t o g e t h e r s o
f r i c t i o n m a k e s t h e m b u r n , p i l e l e a v e s a n d
g r a s s o n y o u r s e l f t o s t a y w a r m .
Insulation has lots of tiny air pockets in it. Air is a good insulator.
23 24
Glossary
conduction the transfer of heat from
one object to another
(p. 14)
conductor a material that transfers
heat from one object to
another (p. 16)
convection the transfer of heat by
movement in a liquid
or gas (p. 19)
evaporate to change from a liquid
state to a gas state (p. 20)
friction a force that builds up and
creates heat when two
objects rub against each
other (p. 5)
fuel any material used to
produce heat or power
(p. 6)
geyser a hot spring that boils
from time to time,
sending a column of
water and steam into
the air (p. 7)
heat energy a form of energy that
transfers from an object
with a higher temperature
to an object with a lower
temperature (p. 4)
insulator material that reduces or
prevents the transfer of
heat (p. 16)
matter anything that takes up
space and has weight
(p. 10)
radiant energy energy that travels
in waves (p. 8)
temperature the measure of hot and
cold, usually measured
on a thermometer (p. 11)
thermometer a tool used for measuring
temperature (p. 11)
transfer to move from one place
to another (p. 15)
Index
cooking, 1618
particles, 1012, 1415, 17
sunlight, 8, 9, 22