What makes an object hotter? Actually, this just means that the object
has more energy. In terms of reactions, the
temperature of the stuff in the reaction is a measure of how much energy
the stuff has. In this case, the energy we refer to is the kinetic
energy. You might think that we're contradicting ourselves, because
earlier we said that heat was what we felt. But heat is just the transfer
of energy, not the energy itself. Actually, the molecules that make up a
hot object are moving faster. Think about the pressure example. Here, objects had a greater
pressure when they were moving faster, because they would hit the walls of
their container more frequently. Think of temperature and kinetic energy
the same way. The faster something moves, the harder it hits the sides of
the walls. The harder it hits, the more energy is transferred from the
object to the wall. The more energy transferred...do you see it now? The
more energy that is transferred to the sides of the container by the
object, the more heat that is generated. After all, if heat is just the
transfer of energy, more heat is just more transferred energy.
Web of Ideas | Lessons | Phenomena
| Student's Ideas | Main