Examples of Convection Microwave oven.

It works on the principle explained above and its working can be noticed by observing a plate of food given for reheating. What exactly happens is the air inside the microwave oven is heated and then the convection currents are forced into the food item. If you put soybeans in a bowl of soup, you can actually see the liquid being boiled and if you immediately check the beans, they would still be in the normal temperature or definitely lesser than the soup. Liquids are heated much faster than the solid beans due to the convection currents. Hot air balloon. Using convection, the hot air balloon is seen to rise above the ground surface and float in the air. The mechanism behind is that the fire inside the balloon heats the air which in turn is trapped by the balloon and does not let the hot air escape like shown in the picture above. The circulation of air inside a refrigerator(cold air sinks and hot air rises). Air conditioning systems transfer heat by both conduction and convection. They conduct heat when they spread heat from their heat exchanger fins into the air. They convect heat when they use fans to blow the air through the home and increase the temperature of the rooms as a result. The air moves as an entire body when it carries its heat, making it a type of convection heating. The cold and warm water currents in the ocean are examples of convection. Your home is heated by the process of convection. The heater increases the temperature of the water, which then rises and expands. The hot water increases the temperature of the air as it circulates through radiators or floor vents. This heated air rises and is replaced by cooler air repeatedly in the convective process described earlier. It is because of convection that vents are usually placed on the floor, and why buildings with high ceilings are hard to keep warm. Convection is used in fridges to cool it down. Heat is carried away, therefore the back offridges are always warm. Examples of Radiation Radio: Radio waves are also emitted by other things ... such as stars and gases in space. You may not be able to dance to what these objects emit, but you can use it to learn what they are made of. Microwaves: They will cook your popcorn in just a few minutes! Microwaves in space are used by astronomers to learn about the structure of nearby galaxies, and our own Milky Way!

Infrared: Our skin emits infrared light, which is why we can be seen in the dark by someone using night vision goggles. In space, IR light maps the dust between stars. Visible: Yes, this is the part that our eyes see. Visible radiation is emitted by everything from fireflies to light bulbs to stars ... also by fast-moving particles hitting other particles. Ultraviolet: We know that the Sun is a source of ultraviolet (or UV) radiation, because it is the UV rays that cause our skin to burn! Stars and other "hot" objects in space emit UV radiation. X-rays: Your doctor uses them to look at your bones and your dentist to look at your teeth. Hot gases in the Universe also emit X-rays . Gamma-rays: Radioactive materials (some natural and others made by man in things like nuclear power plants) can emit gamma-rays. Big particle accelerators that scientists use to help them understand what matter is made of can sometimes generate gamma-rays. But the biggest gamma-ray generator of all is the Universe! It makes gamma radiation in all kinds of ways. When sunlight comes in through a window, the glass is transparent to the visible light. The light hits the objects inside, warming them. The objects then rereradiate heat energy, but at a much lower energy of wavelength, i.e. infrared. The infrared doesn't escape through the glass, which is opaque to infrared. Greenhouses incorporate all three heat transfer concepts. Radiation from the sun hits the ground in the greenhouse. The ground then transfers heat to the air above it by conduction. Convection is generally driven by a warm fluid's tendency to rise. Therefore, the air in the greenhouse would rise, but since the glass ceiling blocks it, the heat builds up. Some think that the reason greenhouses are hot is because infrared radiation from the ground can't escape through the glass. Actually, the rate of heat transfer from the ground is much lower than the rate of convection, and does not make a noticeable difference. Examples of Conduction Melting of ice. The transformation of ice from the solid cube into the liquid form, water, happens because of the heat of our palm. Our body temperature is higher than the temperature of ice. And the heat waves or heat currents have a tendency to flow from higher to lower temperature gradient. That means heat flows from our body through the palm and penetrates the ice thus causing the ice to change its form and turn into water. This principle remains the same in case of hurricanes and tornadoes too.

A hot water heater operates by immersing a heating element in water and allowing conduction to heat the water to a desired temperature. When you turn on the tap, water rushes out until the hot water has pushed out any cooler water in the pipe. Gripping the faucet with your palm, you can feel it getting warmer as conduction pulls heat energy out of the water and into the material of the faucet (and then to your hand). Uninsulated walls and floors are responsible for a lot of heat loss in the winter, as demonstrated by the walls or floor feeling cold to the touch. To test this yourself, place one thermometer hear the area being tested and hang another one from the ceiling so that it is suspended in the center of the room. The area near the test site will be cooler in the winter and warmer in the summer, reflecting the amount of heat energy conducted through the surface. Heat conduction also explains why a tile floor feels colder on bare feet than a rug or a wooden floor. The tile, wood, and rug are actually at the same temperature, but tile is a better conductor than either of them. It draws heat away from your foot more quickly than a wooden floor. The rug is even better, because it does not conduct heat away but rapidly warms up to the temperature of your foot. An example of conduction is cooking on a stovetop. The stove heats the bottom of the pan then the heat transfers throughout the pan to the handle. That's why it's always best to use a pan with a heat resistant handle.