Heat and Temperature

Today in class we finished up the last two group projects and then began discussing the material that will be on the next quiz. Dr. E composed a lovely power point to help her students learn about: temperature, thermal energy, heat, and specific heat. Temperature is related to average kinetic energy of the particles of a substance. The SI unit for temperature is Kelvin which is also known as the absolute temperature scale. The next thing the class discussed was thermal energy, the total of all kinetic and potential energy of all particles in a substance. While discussing thermal energy, Dr. E decided to get the class more involved by asking an interesting question- which has more thermal energy, a swimming pool at 50 degrees Celsius or hot coffee at 100 degrees Celsius? As first some individuals thought that it would be the coffee because of its greater temperature, but in all actuality it would be a swimming pool because it is larger and therefore has more particles. The class then conversed over heat, the flow of thermal energy from one object to another. Dr. E then explained how heat always flows from warmer to less warm objects. To stay on the topic of heat, Dr. E then brought up a different type of heat that I had never heard of, specific heat. Specific heat is a comparison scale that tells that some things heat up and cool down faster than others. To help some individuals understand this definition more clearer, Dr. E explained how sand heats up very fast in the day and then cools down also very fast at night. After her explanation, Dr. E then decided to ask the class a few questions to get them more involved. The first question she presented the class with was, why does water have such a high specific heat? After several inputs from my classmates, the class figured out that water has such a high specific heat because particles are closer together, water molecules form strong bonds with each other and therefore it takes more heat energy to break them. Dr. E then ended the class with this last question, how do we calculate changes in thermal energy? No one in the class really had a response so Dr. E explained to us that heat energy is equal to mass times the change in temperature times the specific heat. This class period was obviously very informational but it was also interesting at the same time. Even though I already knew most of the material discussed in class today, it is always nice for a little refresher!