How does heat travel

Skip to main content. Heat and Heat Transfer Methods. Search for:. Heat Transfer Methods Learning Objective By the end of this section, you will be able to: Discuss the different methods of heat transfer. Check Your Understanding Name an example from daily life different from the text for each mechanism of heat transfer. Solution Conduction: Heat transfers into your hands as you hold a hot cup of coffee. Radiation: Reheating a cold cup of coffee in a microwave oven. Conceptual Questions What are the main methods of heat transfer from the hot core of Earth to its surface?

When our bodies get too warm, they respond by sweating and increasing blood circulation to the surface to transfer thermal energy away from the core.

Unlike conduction and convection, radiation does not need matter to transfer heat. Energy is radiated from the sun, through the vacuum of space at the speed of light. When this energy arrives at Earth, some of it is transferred to the gases in our atmosphere. Some will even be absorbed by your skin. Some of this heat is conducted — like when the hot sand on the beach burns your feet in the summer. Some is convected through wind and ocean currents , and some of it is radiated back into the atmosphere , or even outer space.

More Curious Kids articles, written by academic experts:. What makes a shooting star fall? What causes the northern lights? How is water made? Festival of Social Science — Aberdeen, Aberdeenshire. Edition: Available editions United Kingdom.

Become an author Sign up as a reader Sign in. The glowing hot element of a toaster radiates heat when it is switched on. The heating element is the part of a toaster that becomes glowing hot when electricity passes through it.

It radiates heat toward the bread, turning it into toast. Heat spreads through solids by a process called conduction. As atoms and molecules, the tiny particles that make up all matter, become hot, they jiggle around a lot. These jiggling particles then knock into cooler particles and make them jiggle faster, passing on the heat energy. When one end of this metal bar is heated, heat moves from the hot end to the rest of the bar.

The heated end of the metal bar starts glowing. Slowly the heat spreads along its length, making the entire bar glow.