Science

Hot plates, whether used for food preparation or lab experiments, can be dangerous heat sources if you don't familiarize yourself with the safety precautions associated with their use. To ensure...

Metal objects can be heated by magnetic induction. This method, called induction heating, has been used successfully in industry, research and home kitchens. Heat can be generated precisely and...

The caloric and kinetic theories were two opposing understandings of heat. The kinetic theory replaced the caloric theory when experiments and observations disproved the caloric theory.

Any electrical circuit generates heat. This heat is the result of current flowing through a resistance, and this phenomenon is found in toasters, light bulbs and high-voltage power...

Solar water heaters and heat pumps are devices used to conserve energy spent heating water in the house. Normally, a large amount of energy needs to be spent to run the heating elements or gas...

An induction heating device can seem mysterious. It creates heat while remaining cool to the touch. Induction heating devices have been incorporated into residential, commercial and industrial...

Induction heating can be used to heat homes and cook meals. It offers advantages of other methods of heating like convection, radiant and open flame. It offers consistent heat quickly. It can...

Heating elements are available using both single phase and three phase power sources, but the most powerful heating elements are usually based in three phase systems. The reason is connected with...

In the atomic world, heat can be equated with energy. Some elements give off energy very well--they are good conductors. Others are very poor at giving off energy--they are good insulators. Since...

Solar energy collectors have been in common use since the 1890s. A solar collector in a sunny spot has been used to heat water or make electricity. The limitation has always been times when the...

Infrared radiation and convection are two common forms of heat transfer. Infrared radiation is a form of invisible light--or electromagnetic radiation--that's emitted by objects cooler than the...

Thermal fuses are also known as thermal cutoffs. Their job is to protect sensitive electronic equipment from damaging bursts of heat. They are used only in equipment that naturally generates heat,...

The compressor is one of the most important parts of the air conditioning system. Air conditioners work using the laws of thermal energy and heat transfer. The medium by which heat is moved around...

Photovoltaic solar panels absorb and transform sunlight to direct electrical current. Passive solar panels and absorbers lack the intensity necessary to transform light and heat into electricity;...

The resistance of a wire refers to the ease at which current is able to flow through it. A wire with a higher degree of resistance will not perform as efficiently as a wire with less resistance.

Infrared heating elements are designed to turn an electrical current into infrared rays, usually by running the current through specially prepared resistors. Once created, the infrared rays can be...

Chemical heat packs can be used to apply heat to specific areas on the body to help with pain and injury recovery. They are most popular in sporting events where athletes suffer from various...

A cold heat soldering iron melts solder--a metal used to hold connections on a circuit board. But instead of plugging into a wall like traditional soldering irons, it uses batteries, and unlike...

Trees, shrubs and vines---all woody plants---capture energy from sunlight through photosynthesis. These woody plants provide many benefits to mankind such as food and building materials, but we...

Soapstone is a popular type of carving and decorative stone made of several different minerals. It has been used throughout history as a sculpting material, and today is processed as a stone...

Issues regarding non-renewable and polluting fossil fuels versus alternative sources of energy have been debated regularly for many years now. Solar energy is always mentioned in energy debates as...

Heat transfers from object to object in one of three ways: conduction, convection and radiation. Conduction is transfer by contact. Convection is transfer by a fluid in motion. Radiation...

With the advent of World War II, manufacturing environments developed a new process for heating metal materials to meet the wartime demand for engine parts. Heat induction treatments soon became...

If you rub your hands together for several seconds, you'll notice that your hands feel warm. That warmth is caused by a force called friction. When objects like your hands come in contact and move...

Alternative power sources such as solar and wind are being developed because they reduce pollution and green-house gas emissions while increasing the United State's energy independence. A major...

Heat (or enthalpy) of vaporization is the energy needed to transform one mole of substance into gas. The heat of vaporization can be found using the Clausius-Clapeyron equation if the vapor...

Compressed gases are gases that have compacted down into a smaller space than they usually inhabit. This causes the molecules of the gas to move close together, vibrating and bouncing off each...

Solar energy is light from the sun harnessed by human technology to help power various systems. Normally, sunlight is used by plants during photosynthesis to created needed energy, but the...

Energy is in the form of potential or kinetic. Potential energy is the form that is stored and not in use. For instance, a compressed spring that is ready to be released has potential energy....

Two standard experiments are used to demonstrate Newton's law of cooling. One is to heat a thermometer, and then note the rate at which the temperature drops as it cools. Another is to heat a...

Thermal conductivity is the transfer of heat across a medium. It is a very common phenomenon that is, fortunately, simple and safe enough to be experimented on easily. With only a few simple...

With so many people attempting to "go green" and protect the environment, a debate about which form of household heating is better has begun. The two options being discussed are electric heating...

Heat transfer is the movement of heat from a hotter object to a colder object. Heat itself is how we experience molecular vibrations. Faster vibrations feel hotter to the touch. There are three...

Neodymium magnets are magnets made with rare-earth materials, usually neodymium, iron and boron. They are very powerful and exciting devices with which to experiment.

The kinetic theory of gases is a theory that gases consist of small particles in random motion. Thermal conductivity is the property of a material that indicates its ability to conduct heat. The...

Transfer paper is used for moving an image from one material to another. The image is printed on the paper and then, through application of heat or a solvent such as water, the image can be...

Heat is a form of energy. It is transferred from warm places to cooler places. So easily, in fact, that people spend a great deal of money and effort trying to keep it in their homes in winter,...

Heat transfer is the transition of thermal energy from a hotter object to a cooler object. Heat is how we experience on a macro level the vibrational motion of molecules' thermal energy. The...

Certain physical laws make it possible to light a fire using a magnifying glass or other lens.

Water in water coolers is kept cold in the exact way as nearly all refrigerators and air conditioners--through the use of a heat pump. A heat pump moves a liquid, called refrigerant, through a...

Heat transfer is a process of thermal energy movement. It is governed by scientific laws that dictate, in summary, that such energy will also seek equilibrium, and move from substances of high...

Natural gas is a fossil fuel very similar to oil in its composition. Both fuels are formed from long dead plants and animals that slowly decomposed. The minerals they were once formed from, like...

The transfer of heat from warmer objects to colder ones is studied extensively by scientists and engineers, for it affects such disparate fields as construction and medicine. Heat transfer occurs...

Plastic bags of sodium acetate solution are used as hand warmers. A chemical reaction takes place when you click a metal clicker inside the bag. The solution turns to a crystalline form,...

The transitions between a material's solid, liquid and gaseous phases involve large amounts of energy. The energy required for the transition is known as latent heat transfer. Recently,...

Steam has a number of useful applications in the modern world. Steam can be used to cook food, heat a home and even to provide power to an electric device. Steam is a clean source of energy that...

As you sit outside on a hot day, you watch the ice in your glass of water slowly melt. Later, you dump some ice from a cooler into the sink and turn on the water to melt the ice. You can't always...

Thermoelectric theory began in the 1700s, when the physicist Thomas Johann Seebeck discovered that two conductive materials heated at different temperatures produced an electrical effect....

An autoclave is a device used in biomedical and pharmaceutical applications to sterilize instruments and supplies by means of moist heat. This involves adding pressurized saturated steam at a...

Geothermal uses thermal heat from the earth's crust---including magma heat, radioactive decay of minerals and solar heat absorbed into the earth---to create usable power. Compared to coal, oil,...