Transfer of thermal energy

Made by: Arzou Nawaz Virk

Class 9s
Conduction
• It is the transfer of energy without any flow of the medium.
• Heat flows through the materials of the rods without any flow of the material.
The process of transfer of thermal energy without any flow of medium is thereby
called conduction.
• Different materials conduct heat at different rates. Since the lengths of the
unmelted wax left is shortest for copper and the longest for wood we can say that
copper is a good conductor and wood is a poor conductor of heat in other words
we can say that wood is an insulator.
• In general, metals such as copper, silver, steel and iron are good conductors of
heat while non-metals (such as glass, plastic, wood, brick), gases (such as air) and
liquids (such as water) are poor conductors of heat.
Mechanisms of Conduction
• All solids (metals or non-metal) are made up of tiny particles called atoms, or
groups of atoms called molecules. However, there is one important difference b/w
metals and non-metals: metals contain many free electrons which are able to
move randomly b/w the molecules. For non-metals there are a few free electrons.
• When heat is supplied to one end of a rod, the molecules at the end vibrate
vigorously and jostle neighbouring molecules, making them vibrate as well. Thus,
some of the kinetic energy of the vibrate molecules at the hot end gets transferred
to their neighbours.
• The process of passing heat from the hot end to the cold end by molecular
vibration is common to both copper (metal) and wood (non-metal. It is relatively
slow mechanism of heat transfer compared to other mechanism of heat transfer
that was taking place in metals: free-electron diffusion.
Continued……….
• When the rods are heated, the free electrons in the copper move faster as a result
of having more kinetic energy. These fast moving energy-carrying electrons diffuse
or spread into the cooler parts of the metal and then transfer their kinetic energy
to the molecules by colliding with them. This explains why the rate of heat transfer
in good conductors (metals) is much faster than that in insulators (non-metals).
• CONDUCTION OF HEAT THROUGH LIQUIDS AND GASES:
• In liquids and gases, heat can also be conducted from a hotter to a cooler region.
However, the process of conduction in liquids and gases is insufficient. Heat
conduction in liquids and gases involve the transfer of kinetic energy from fast-
moving atoms or molecules to slow-moving ones through the process of collisions.
Collisions b/w atom and molecules are extremely frequent in liquids and even less
frequent in gases where atoms and molecules are far apart.
Convection
• It is the transfer of thermal energy by means of currents in the material medium
(liquids or gas).
• It is heat transfer through bulk movement of fluid itself. A convection current is the
movement of fluid caused by the change in densities in various parts of the fluid.
• MECHANISM OF CONVECTION:
• The circulation of the purple streams of water in figure 12.6 (in book physics a
course for o´levels) or the flow of smoke in figure 12.7 (in book a course for o´levels)
represents a convection current. When the water at the bottom of the round
bottomed flask (or the air above the candle) is heated, it expands. The fluid is now
less dense than the surrounding fluid so it starts to rise. In doing so, the cooler
regions of the fluid in the upper part of the flask, being denser, now descend. This
movement of fluid due to a difference in densities sets up a convectional current.
Continued…………
• Convection currents occur only in fluids (i.e. in liquids and gases) but
not in solids. This is because convection involves the bulk movement
of the fluids which carry heat with them. For solids, the heat is
transferred from one molecule t another without any movement of
the molecules themselves.
Radiation
• It is the continual emission of infra-red waves from the surfaces of all
bodies, transmitted through space, without the aid of a material
medium.
• For example: heat from the sun reaches the earth by the process