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Heat - Conduction.
Heat
can be transferred by conduction only in solids.
If one end of a solid is heated, the particles
of the solid gain kinetic energy.
This means that they move faster.
In a solid the particles
are held together by strong forces of
attraction.
The only way in which the particles can move
is to vibrate forwards and backwards.
When the solid is heated, the
amount by which the particles vibrate
is increased. This is what is meant by saying that
the particles of the solid
have gained
kinetic energy. The
increase in energy (heat) is
passed on
to the next particle, which in turn starts to
vibrate more.
In the above picture, the blue
rectangle represents a solid
and the amount of vibration is shown by the length of the arrows.
The orange arrows on the left represent hot
particles.
The blue arrows from the middle onwards represent cold particles.
In non-metals the process is slow. It
takes a long time for the particles
to pass
on their heat. Non-metals are
not good
conductors.
They are good insulators (continued).
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Copyright © 2008 Dr. Colin France. All Rights Reserved.