Difference Between Heat and Temperature

Heat:
In physics and thermodynamics, heat is the process of energy transfer from one body or system due
to thermal contact, which in turn is defined as an energy transfer to a body in any other way than due
to work performed on the body.

Temperature:
Temperature is a measure of the average energy of motion, or kinetic energy, of particles in matter

Heat vs Temperature

If one does a cursory examination of the physical world, it would seem that heat and
temperature are the same thing. For instance, when you turn on an oven, you would
say that it heats up. At the same time its temperature increases. For this kind of
general purpose, it is easy to confuse heat and temperature. However, when you are
working within the realm of physics there are many differences between heat and
temperature.

Unit of Measure
Heat – is measured in joules. Joules represent the amount of energy that heat
transfers. Watts measure the rate of this energy transfer. Watts equal joules over
seconds.
Temperature – is measured in a variety of scales. The three most common scales are
Kelvin, Celsius, and Fahrenheit. Kelvin is a primarily scientific scale based on the
concept of absolute zero. Celsius is used around the world to measure scientific and
consumer temperatures. The use of the Fahrenheit scale is confined to the US a few
other small countries.
What it Measures
Heat – measures all the energy in a specific piece of matter. This includes the kinetic
energy created by molecular movement as well as the potential energy stored in the
molecular bonds. Heat is considered to be a form of energy that is constantly moving.
Temperature – measures only the kinetic energy given off by moving molecules.

Heat and temperature are both governed by the laws of thermodynamics. These laws
state that nature is constantly trying to evenly distribute all the energy in a closed
system, in this case, the universe. You can imagine energy as a stream that is
constantly flowing downhill, traveling from one pool to the next until they are all evenly
filled.

There are two ways that nature can transfer energy. She can use work or she can use
heat. One of the simplest definitions of heat is the transfer of energy from one object
to another. If an object with a higher temperature is placed next to an object with a
lower temperature, energy will flow out of the hotter object and into the colder one
until they have reached equilibrium. This phenomenon is observable as you watch
your hot food cool to room temperature or a pen warm up the longer you hold it in
your hand.

The transfer of energy as heat relates to temperature because as the heat transfers
energy from one object to another, the molecules in the object receiving the heat will
speed up, thus increasing the amount of kinetic energy in the object. More kinetic
energy means a greater temperature.
Summary
1.To the casual observer heat and temperature refer to the same phenomenon of an
object getting hotter.
2.Heat and temperature are measures with different units.
3.Temperature measures the movements of molecules in an object while heat
measures both molecular movement and potential molecular energy.
4.Heat and temperature are governed by the laws of thermodynamics and work
together to keep energy flowing from hotter to colder objects.

Heat and Heat Vs. Temperature

Heat
Heat is a form of energy that flows from hotter substance to colder one. We mean by
hotter and colder substance,
substance having
high temperature and low
temperature with respect to a
reference matter. There must be
a difference in temperatures of
the substance to have heat or
energy transfer. Heat is related
to the quantity of matter also. If
the object has big mass it also has big thermal energy and consequently amount of
transferred energy increases. Since it is a type of energy we use Joule or Calories as unit
of heat.

Differences between Heat and Temperature

In daily life most of us use these terms interchangeably. In this section

we learn differences between them.

1. Heat is a type of energy, but temperature is not energy.

2. Heat depends on mass of the substance, however; temperature does not depend on the quantity of
matter. For example, temperature of one glass of boiling water and one teapot of boiling water are
equal to each other; on the contrary they have different heat since they have different masses.
3. You can measure temperature directly with a device called thermometer but heat cannot be measured
with a device directly. You should know the mass, temperature and specific heat capacity of that matter.
4. If you give heat to a matter, you increase its temperature or change its phase.

Specific Heat
Capacity

If you give same amount

of heat to different type
of matters you observe
that changes in their
temperatures are different. For instance, all you experience that given an equal amount
of heat to metal spoons and wooden spoons, metal spoon has greater change in its
temperature. Thus, most of the housewives use wooden or plastic spoons while cooking.
These examples show that each matter has its own characteristics to absorb heat. We
call this concept as specific heat capacity of the matters. It is the distinguishing
property of matters. We show it with the letter “c” and give the definition of it as, heat
required to increase temperature of unit mass 1 ºC.On the contrary, heat capacity of the
system is defined as “heat required increasing the temperature of whole substance” and
we show it with “C”.

C=m.c where m is the mass of the substance and c is the specific heat of the
matter.

With the help of specific heat capacity and mass of the matter we can find the relation
between heat and change in the temperature in the given formula below.

Q=m.c.∆T

Where; Q is heat, m is mass, c is specific heat capacity and ∆T is the change in the
temperature.