Have you ever heard the saying "Cold hands, warm heart"? No? Well, if you have ever had cold hands you know that when you shake someone's hand and it feels warm, have you wondered which way the heat is flowing? Is it flowing from the warm hand to the cold hand, or is it the opposite, the cold hand cooling the warm hand...? Heat does flow and it always goes from "hot to cold". When an object feels cold to you, your heat is flowing out of you and into that object. When you feel a hot object, the heat is flowing from the object into you! This type of flow even occurs in our atmosphere. Areas of hot atmosphere will warm areas of cold atmosphere...when this happens we get some pretty gnarly storms.... Cold air is heavy and sinks, while warm air is less dense and will float up and over the cold air mass when they collide. We will talk about this more in the near future during our weather unit. The line where the cold front meets the warm front (kind of like a handshake) creates huge thunderheads and thunderstorms. Actually, I think that's my favorite time of year when the warm air in our valley meets the colder air coming down from Canada in the spring. Think about this question for a minute: On a cold morning when you step out of bed and walk across the cold tile, or floor. Which way is the flow of heat? Is the floor so cold it is creeping into your feet? Nope! Remember heat transfers from "hot to cold" every. single. time. If you tried to explain this you might say, your warm foot is transferring all it's heat into the floor...and your floor has so much more mass than your foot that all your heat went quickly into the floor and your body hasn't had time to warm your foot up yet! Yes! Heat transfers from "hot to cold", from "hot to cold", from "hot to cold"! Boom-botta-boom!
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Mrs. TaylorI love science! Everything about the world is interesting and never boring. I love to study plants, animals, insects, and people. My favorite subjects are my students who are the most unique organisms on the planet! Categories |