4.

2 SCIENTIFIC THEORIES OF HEAT

SCIENCE 10 Power point
 Early Theories of Heat

 1-2 million years ago the

first hominid (human-
like) species was called
Homo erectus.
 They lived in Africa and
were thought to be the
first humans to use fire to
cook their food and keep
warm.
 They did not understand
the science of heat and
energy.
 Empedocles – 492-435 BC

Empedocles’ theory
consisted of the following
elements:
All matter was made from
a combination of the 4
elements: EARTH, AIR,
FIRE and WATER
He thought that when
objects burned, the fire
within them was released
 The Phlogiston Theory
early 1700s

Scientists believed that substances that could

burn contained an invisible fluid called
.
They believed that phlogiston flowed out of an
object when the object burned.
When wood burned, the phlogiston flowed out,
leaving only ashes (therefore ashes had less
mass than original wood)
The Phlogiston Theory
 An example that would
dispute this theory:
2 Mg (s) + O2 (g)  2 MgO (s)

When Mg burned the ashes

weighed MORE!
So maybe phlogiston didn’t
always leave when substances
were burned
Or maybe….phlogiston didn’t
exist!
 The Caloric Theory
In the late 1700s, it was believed that “caloric” or
“heat” was a massless fluid that was found in all
substances.
This theory was called the
Scientists believed that this “caloric” couldn’t be
created or destroyed, but could flow from one
substance to another. In fact, many scientists believed
it flowed from warm objects to cooler ones.
 Joseph Black

Joseph Black defined the

calorie as:

A unit of heat
 The Caloric Theory

Can you see any problems/limitations with

the “Caloric Theory”?

Caloric Theory = Caloric is a massless fluid

that flows from one object (warmer) to
another (cooler)
Benjamin Thompson (aka Count Rumford)

Count Rumford lived in Bavaria,

Germany and was in charge of
looking after the military
cannons.

He noticed that after boring a

hole into the metal cannon, the
tools and metal became very hot
– but weren’t hot previously.

How would the Caloric Theory

explain this?
Count Rumford

The count discovered

that the “caloric” or
“heat” as he called it,
was not transferred from
inside a hotter object to a
colder one – instead the
“heat” was a type of
energy that was
transferred from the
mechanical energy due
to friction.
 Count Rumford
Count Rumford made
the conclusion:

HEAT = ENERGY
Relationship Between Energy and
Heat

Scientists now knew that heat and energy

were related – but wanted to find a
mechanical equivalent of heat – in other
words, they wanted to quantify or measure
heat in some way.
Scientists competed to be the first to come
up with a measurable quantity for heat –
which was finally discovered in the 1800s.
 Julius Mayer – 1800s

Julius Mayer actually was the scientist who

found real evidence of a relationship
between energy and heat.
How did he do this?
 Julius Mayer – An important
discovery
Julius Mayer served as a ship’s
doctor on a voyage to the East
Indies.
Many sailors would get sick –
and “blood-letting” was a
common practice to rid the
sailor of “toxins”. The doctor
would puncture the sailor’s
vein and allow some blood to
escape – believing it would
cure the sailor.
 Mayer’s findings:
After performing many blood-letting “operations”,
Mayer noticed that the blood of the sailors (who
lived predominantly in Northern climates) was
darker red than the blood of the natives (who lived
in tropical climates)
Mayer knew that
darker blood meant
less oxygen whereas
lighter blood meant
more oxygen.
Native’s blood Sailors’ blood
 Mayer’s findings con’t

Mayer concluded that lighter blood meant

more O2 and therefore less work done by the
body (Mayer knew that work done by the
body = less oxygen in blood = darker blood)
Mayer determined that the Northern sailor’s
used quite a bit of body energy to stay warm
– therefore there was less oxygen in the
blood which meant darker blood overall.
 Mayer’s Downfall…

Finally! Someone could quantify heat – possibly

even measure it! If Julius Mayer could figure out
how to calculate how much energy the body
expended when staying warm – he could put a
quantity or unit on heat.
Sounds good! Why didn’t he publish this and get
really famous? (Obviously he didn’t – have you ever
even heard of Julius Mayer??)
Julius Mayer tried to write a
scientific paper outlining his
theories on heat and energy
but it was overlooked by the
scientific community because
he lacked the formal
education necessary to write
a good paper.

By the time he had gone back

to school to learn how to
write a paper… another
scientist had quickly
published all of these ideas!
He became QUITE famous…
James Prescott Joule

Joule was a highly trained

scientist who performed many
experiments.
He came up with a mechanical equivalent of
heat – called a JOULE (J).
The Joule is now used to measure energy.
 Joule’s Experiment

http://www.einstein-support.co.uk/support/msim/website/experiment/expA_hi-ba
http://www.einstein-support.co.uk/support/msim/website/experiment/exp_B_virtu

Joule’s Experiment

Joule's apparatus for measuring the mechanical equivalent of

heat. A descending weight attached to a string causes a
paddle immersed in water to rotate and the "work" of the
falling weight is converted into "heat" by agitating the water
and raising its temperature.
 What is work?

Work =

W = FΔd

W = work (J) (Joules)

F = force (N) (Newtons) (F = mg)
Δd = change in distance (m) (metres)
 Work Problems
F = 1.0 N

Δd = 0.35 m
W=?
W = FΔd
=
Answer is ??