Heat and Temperature

Heat is a transfer of thermal energy, which is absorbed or given up from one body to another.

Temperature is the degree of hotness of a body. It is associated with the total kinetic energy of the
particles in a body.

It is therefore clear that there is a difference between the two quantities, and we will now seek to
highlight some of these differences:

● If two objects are at the same temperature, regardless of their shape, color, composition, or any
other property, they are said to be in thermal equilibrium. Although they are at the same
temperature, they may contain very different amounts of heat. E.g., a spark from a firework at
15000 oC is very harmless (high temperature, low heat content); on the other hand a teaspoon
full of boiling water at 100 oC will produce a nasty burn (low temperature, high heat content).

● To raise the temperature of an object /system, energy must be added; to lower the
temperature, energy has to be removed. This thermal energy is internal, in the sense that it is
associated with the motion of the atoms and molecules making up the object /system.

● When objects of different temperatures are brought together, the temperatures will tend to
equalize. Energy is transferred from hotter objects to cooler objects; this transferred energy is
known as heat.
 Theories of Heat
From the early eighteenth century, scientists have put forward various theories as to the nature of heat.
Below is a list of the contributions made to explaining the nature of heat:

1. Caloric Theory
2. Rumford Experiments
3. James Joule’s Experiment
4. Kinetic Theory

The Caloric Theory

Well into the nineteenth century, heat was thought to be an invisible, weightless, self repellent fluid-
called caloric- which flowed easily from the hot body to the cold one. A hot body was thought to have
more caloric than a cold one until each had the same amount.

● Caloric flows more easily through metals than non-metals;

● Since caloric repels itself, a body with lot of caloric expands, i.e. a heat body expands;
● When a nail is heated, caloric squeezes to the surface and the nail becomes hotter;
● The smaller an object the less caloric it can hold.

Rumford’s Experiments

As Minister of War in Bavaria, Count Rumford supervised the making of cannons. These were
by boring large holes in brass using a blunt boring tool which was driven by horses. In one
experiment, Rumford found that sufficient heat was produced in 2.5 hours to raise the
temperature of 12kg of water to 100⁰C

From his observations, Rumford concluded that the heat produced depended on the amount of
work done by the horses. Rumford discredited the caloric theory and established a link
between heat and mechanical work.

James Joule Contribution

In the 1840s Joule carried out an experiment to determine the amount of work required to
raise the temperature of a fixed mass of water by 1⁰C.

The Experiment:
From his experiment he was able to determine that

● The gravitational potential energy of falling weights was converted into thermal
energy(EH)
● EH was related to the change in the temperature of the water (∆θ) by the relationship:
EH= m x c x ∆θ
Where m is mass of the water used and c is a constant known as the specific heat
capacity of the water.

Findings/Conclusions:

Joule found that 4.2kJ of work raised the temperature of 1kg of water by 1⁰C.
Joules also measured experimentally, the heat produced when electric currents flowed through
conductors (resistors).
The total energy was constant in all systems that Joule investigated. The quantity of energy
‘lost’ as work or electricity ‘reappeared’ as heat.

Joule’s experiment established:

● Heat as a form of energy;
● The important principle of the conservation of energy.
 Measuring Temperature

There is no direct method used to measure temperature. Indirect methods must be used.
Instruments designed to measure temperature are called thermometers. The operation of a
thermometer depends on some physical property of matter that changes with temperature.
This is called the thermometric property.

In temperature measurement, an object’s /system temperatur e may be registered by any property

that depends on that object’s thermal state. Such properties range widely and include:

● The change in volume of a liquid, e.g., mercury

● The change in volume of a gas, e.g., air
● The change in electrical resistance of a metal, e.g., platinum
● The generation of a voltage by a thermocouple, and
● Visible colour, since objects become luminous when their temperature rises sufficiently.

Thermometric Property Type of Thermometer Range

Change in volume of a Liquid Liquid in Glass

● Mercury -39 C to 400 C͎
● Alcohol -115 to 110 C

Clinical Thermometer 35C to 42C

Change in Pressure of a gas Constant Volume Gas

(at constant volume)

Change in resistance of a wire Resistance - Thermometer

Emf generated between two Thermocouple

wires

Radiation emitted by hot objects Radiation Pyrometer

Change in colour of a body Patterson Colour Thermometer

Assignment:

1. Research in groups each type of thermometer, discussing:

A. Its physical design
B. Diagram of the thermometer
C. How it works
 D. Range
E. Advantages and disadvantages

2. Present your information in class using powerpoint or google slides.

Kinetic Theory of Matter

When you are required to explain in terms of ‘the kinetic theory’… it means in terms of molecules and
their motion.
The Kinetic Theory of Matter states that matter is made up of lots of tiny molecules all in rapid random
motion. All molecules above zero Kelvin have some kind of motion and kinetic energy.

The Main ideas of the Kinetic theory of gases are given below:

⮚ 1. M – Motion: The particles of a gas are in rapid, random and continuous motion, colliding into
each other and in the walls of its container;

⮚ 2. V - Volume: Gases are made up of very small particles which are very far apart and which
occupy very little volume compared with the bulk of the gas. That is, most of the given volume
of a gas is empty space;

⮚ 3. P – Pressure: When a gas is placed in a container, the walls of the container tend to be
pushed outwards. This gas pressure is the result of the bombardment of the walls by all those
little molecules as they keep colliding with them and rebounding back;

⮚ 4. T – Temperature: The average kinetic energy of a gas is directly proportional to its absolute
temperature. Therefore, as the gas in a sealed container is warmed up the pressure rises
(Pressure Law). This is so since the hotter gas molecules have more energy and so are moving
faster, resulting in more frequent collisions between the particles and in the walls of its
container. When a gas warms up its molecules rebound off the wall harder and more often.

⮚ 5. F – Force: As well as being in continuous motion, molecules also exert strong electrical forces
on one another when they are close together. The forces are both attractive and repulsive. The
attractive force holds molecules together and the repulsive force causes matter to resist
compression. Hence, the intermolecular forces are negligible (very weak).

⮚ Compression: Gases can be compressed. Squeezing a gas into a smaller container makes the
pressure go up further, because if the walls are closer together the number of collisions with
them every second will increase. (Boyle’s Law)

Some molecules are too small to see, calculations, however, tell us that the molecules in air at ordinary
temperatures are traveling at speeds in the region of 500 m s -1.