THERMAL PHYSICS

By MST_Creator
 Note To Readers:
The content in this is only revision, please read other sources as I may leave out some
things.

I skipped states of matter, but it is present in the book!

Table of Contents
Note To Readers: .................................................................................................................................................................1
Brownian Motion ..................................................................................................................................................................3
Evaporation & Boiling ...........................................................................................................................................................4
Boiling vs Evaporation .....................................................................................................................................................4
How Does Evaporation Work? ....................................................................................................................................4
How To Increase Rate of Evaporation?......................................................................................................................4
Gases & Kinetic Theory ......................................................................................................................................................5
Formula of Pressure (For Reference) .........................................................................................................................5
Why Do Gases Exert Pressure? ...................................................................................................................................5
Compressing Gases .........................................................................................................................................................5
Why Does This Happen?? .........................................................................................................................................5
Boyle’s Law: Now wtf is this!?..................................................................................................................................5
How Do Thermometers Work?.......................................................................................................................................7
Temperature & Internal Energy.........................................................................................................................................7
Calibrating A Thermometer...............................................................................................................................................8
Fixed Points .......................................................................................................................................................................8
Linearity ..............................................................................................................................................................................8
Sensitivity............................................................................................................................................................................8
Range ...................................................................................................................................................................................8
Thermistors (Yes, Those Exist) .........................................................................................................................................9
The Problem ......................................................................................................................................................................9
Thermocouple .................................................................................................................................................................... 10
Advantages ...................................................................................................................................................................... 10
Thermal Expansion ............................................................................................................................................................ 11
Usage ................................................................................................................................................................................ 11
Consequences ................................................................................................................................................................ 11
Comparing Solids, Liquids, & Gases: ........................................................................................................................ 11

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Expansion of Gases ............................................................................................................................................................ 12
Thermal Capacity ............................................................................................................................................................... 12
Specific Heat Capacity ...................................................................................................................................................... 13
SHC & Land-Sea Breezes (O_O) .............................................................................................................................. 13
SHCs: ........................................................................................................................................................................... 13
Sea Breeze: ................................................................................................................................................................. 13
Land Breeze: .............................................................................................................................................................. 14
No Breeze: ................................................................................................................................................................. 14
Measuring SHC .............................................................................................................................................................. 14
Energy:......................................................................................................................................................................... 14
Mass: ............................................................................................................................................................................ 14
Change in Temperature: ......................................................................................................................................... 15
SHC:............................................................................................................................................................................. 15
Conduction .......................................................................................................................................................................... 16
How It Works................................................................................................................................................................ 16
Demonstrating Conduction........................................................................................................................................ 16
Convection .......................................................................................................................................................................... 17
Convection Currents ................................................................................................................................................... 17
Figure: .......................................................................................................................................................................... 17
Me Trying to Explain the Figure ........................................................................................................................... 17
Radiation .............................................................................................................................................................................. 19
Infrared Radiation.......................................................................................................................................................... 19
How Do We Sense Infrared Rays? ...................................................................................................................... 19
Absorbers & Emitters ....................................................................................................................................................... 20
How To Not Let Heat Escape from Our Houses ..................................................................................................... 20
Formulas To Remember .................................................................................................................................................. 21
SHC .................................................................................................................................................................................. 21
Boyle’s Law ..................................................................................................................................................................... 21
Kelvin (K) To Celsius (C)............................................................................................................................................ 21
Celsius (C) To Kelvin (K)............................................................................................................................................ 21

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 Brownian Motion
This is the random movement of particles due to constant collisions with other particles
that cannot be seen.

These sorts of questions are common in multiple choice paper:

3
 Evaporation & Boiling
▪ Evaporation is when a liquid changes state from liquid to gas in temperature below
boiling point.
▪ Boiling is the rapid vaporization of liquids.
▪ Boiling occurs when the temperature is equal to or above the boiling point.
▪ Boiling point for water is one hundred Celsius.

Boiling vs Evaporation
Boiling Evaporation
Occurs at fixed temperature Occurs at any temperature (under boiling point)
Fast process Slow process
Takes place throughout the liquid Takes place at the surface of the liquid
Bubbles are formed No bubbles are formed
Temperature remains constant Temperature may change
Heat energy is supplied by an energy source Heat energy is supplied from surroundings
No cooling effect Cooling effect

How Does Evaporation Work?

▪ Evaporation is the escape of the most energetic particles from the surface of a liquid.
▪ When the particles leave the liquid, the overall kinetic energy of the liquid decreases,
this causes the temperature to decrease.
▪ This causes a “cooling effect.”

How To Increase Rate of Evaporation?

1. Decrease humidity: fewer particles are condensing
2. Increase surface area: More molecules close to surface
3. Increase temperature: More particles have the energy to escape.

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 Gases & Kinetic Theory

Formula of Pressure (For Reference)

𝐹
𝑃=
𝐴
A is Volume in this case

Why Do Gases Exert Pressure?

Let us talk about balloons.

In a balloon, the gas particles will collide with the borders and exert force, this causes
pressure.

So, if there are more particles in the air, the pressure will increase as there will be more
collisions.

Compressing Gases
When we make the container smaller, this means we decrease the volume.

When volume decreases, the pressure increases.

This means the pressure and volume are inversely proportional.

Why Does This Happen??

▪ The reason the pressure increases is because the decrease in volume causes the
particles to collide more frequently.
▪ Since the collisions increase, the pressure will also increase.

Boyle’s Law: Now what on earth is this!?

The volume of a fixed mass of gas is inversely proportional to its pressure, provided that the
temperature remains the same.

Boyle’s law shows the mathematical relationship between Pressure and Volume.
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 𝐶𝑜𝑛𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑛𝑡 = 𝑝𝑉

𝐶𝑜𝑛𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑛𝑡 = 𝑃𝑟𝑒𝑠𝑠𝑢𝑟𝑒 ∗ 𝑉𝑜𝑙𝑢𝑚𝑒

The law also helps us find values after compression.

𝑃1 𝑉1 = 𝑃2 𝑉2

𝐼𝑛𝑖𝑡𝑖𝑎𝑙 𝑃𝑟𝑒𝑠𝑠𝑢𝑟𝑒 ∗ 𝐼𝑛𝑖𝑡𝑖𝑎𝑙 𝑉𝑜𝑙𝑢𝑚𝑒 = 𝐹𝑖𝑛𝑎𝑙 𝑃𝑟𝑒𝑠𝑠𝑢𝑟𝑒 ∗ 𝐹𝑖𝑛𝑎𝑙 𝑉𝑜𝑢𝑚𝑒

We can also say that Pressure is inversely proportional to Volume:

1 1
𝑝∝ 𝑜𝑟 𝑣 ∝
𝑣 𝑝

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 How Do Thermometers Work?
When a thermometer is placed against a patient’s body:

1. Energy of patient is shared with the thermometer.

2. The energy is shared until they both have the same amount of energy.
3. The thermometer shows the temperature that it records.

Temperature & Internal Energy

Temperature is the measure of the average kinetic energy of all the individual particles.

Internal energy is the total energy of all the particles.

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 Calibrating A Thermometer
Calibration is the process of configuring an instrument to provide a result for a sample
within an acceptable range.

Fixed Points
These are two reference points that we use.

These are generally:

1. Melting point of ice: 0 C

2. Boiling point of Water: 100 C

We then use a ruler to mark points between the fixed points for the other temperatures.

Linearity
▪ The linearity refers to how evenly spaced the marks on the thermometer are.

Sensitivity
▪ Sensitivity refers to how much of a change can be seen for the change in
temperature per Celsius.
▪ High sensitivity would mean that there is greater change in the length risen by
mercury.
▪ Low sensitivity would mean that there is less change in length of mercury per
Celsius.

Range
▪ Refers to the lowest and highest temperatures that can be measured.
▪ The lowest temperature mercury can measure is -39C and the highest is 350C.
▪ Different liquids have different ranges, Alcohol’s range is from -114C to 79C.

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 Thermistors (Yes, Those Exist)
These are resistors whose resistance changes by massive amounts over a narrow range.

The Problem
There are two problems that we can see in the graph above:

1. The resistance of the thermistor changes in a non-linear manner.

2. Since the range is narrow, we must choose right thermistor for right temperatures.

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 Thermocouple
Thermocouple is a tool that gives us a voltage which depends on the temperature.

G: Galvanometer which is a sensitive ammeter.

▪ The cold junction is the junction we keep in melting ice (0C)

▪ The hot junction is the junction we keep at the object we want to measure the
temperature of.

Advantages
1. We can measure the temperatures of places where we cannot reach (like volcano).
2. The range of temperatures we can measure is large.

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 Thermal Expansion
When we heat an object, most of the time, it expands, this is called Thermal Expansion.

Usage
One is in the thermometer; we make use of thermal expansion to get the temperature of an
object as the mercury expands according to the temperature.

Another example is when joining metals using a rivet, a hot rivet is passed through two
metal sheets and when it contracts, it holds them together tightly.

Consequences
Glass containers can burst when hot liquid is poured into them due to the force of
expansion being so great.

Railway lines can expand and buckle on hot days, we prevent this by producing them in
sections, so they are slightly far from each other (just enough to not buckle).

Comparing Solids, Liquids, & Gases:

Solids: Expand very slowly when heated

Liquids: Expand faster than solids but slower than gases

Gases: Expand the fastest

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 Expansion of Gases
▪ Gases expand when heated.
▪ They expand because the molecules have more energy and move faster which is
what causes them to expand.
▪ Gases expand when heated at constant pressure.

Thermal Capacity
Thermal capacity is the amount of energy needed to raise the temperature of something by
1C.

Thermal capacity depends on the material of the object:

▪ Metal objects have low thermal capacity as they heat up very easily.
▪ Non-metals have higher thermal capacities in general.

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 Specific Heat Capacity
Specific Heat Capacity is the amount of energy needed to raise the temperature of 1kg (or
any other unit of mass) of a substance by 1C (or any other unit of temperature).

The formula for SHC is:

𝐸𝑛𝑒𝑟𝑔𝑦
𝑆𝑝𝑒𝑐𝑖𝑓𝑖𝑐 𝐻𝑒𝑎𝑡 𝐶𝑎𝑝𝑎𝑐𝑖𝑡𝑦 =
𝑀𝑎𝑠𝑠 ∗ 𝐶ℎ𝑎𝑛𝑔𝑒 𝐼𝑛 𝑇𝑒𝑚𝑝𝑒𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑢𝑟𝑒

𝐸
𝑐=
𝑚 ∗ ∆𝑇

SHC & Land-Sea Breezes (O_O)

The SHC of water is extremely high, this means that:

1. It takes a lot of energy to heat water

2. Hot water takes lot of time to cool

SHCs:
1. Water SHC is high
2. Sand SHC is low

Let us say you went to the beach one day and the temperature outside was around 45C.

Well, the sand would also be 45C as it has low SHC while water will be colder due to its
higher SHC.

Sea Breeze:
1. The warm air at the sand will rise due to the lower pressure which will then be replaced with
cool air.
2. The warm air will then fall onto the sea due to the high pressure there.
3. The warm air on the sea will become cold and then replace the warm air (that was once cold).
4. This will happen in a loop (convection current)

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Land Breeze:
Let us say its night-time and the temperature is 25C.

This means the sand is also 25C (due to low SHC) and the water would be a bit higher (let
us say 28C).

Now this is what will happen:

1. The warm air above the water will rise.

2. The cool air will move in above the water and the warm air is pushed down onto
the land.
3. The warm air will then become cool, and the cool air will become hot.
4. This process repeats in a loop.

No Breeze:
This is when the temperatures in water and land are similar which causes no breeze.

Measuring SHC
There are three variables needed to get SHC:

1. Energy
2. Mass
3. Change in Temperature

Let us say we were heating an aluminium block at room temperature (20C) of 1.5kg using
an electric heater the provided 50W per minute for 2 minutes and the final temperature
was 80C

Energy:
𝐸
We use the formula 𝑃 = 𝑡 , we rearrange it for Energy which gives us 𝐸 = 𝑃𝑡.

We use the given values to find the energy and we get 6000J.

Mass:
Literally given which is 1.5kg

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Change in Temperature:
We get this by subtracting the final temperature with the initial temperature.

∆𝑇 = 80 − 20

∆𝑇 = 60

SHC:
𝐸
We now just put our values into the formula 𝑐 = .
𝑚∗ ∆𝑇

We get:

6000
𝑐=
1.5 ∗ 60
6000
𝑐=
90
𝐽
𝑐 = 66.67
𝑘𝑔 °𝐶

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 Conduction
▪ Thermal energy transfer requires a temperature difference.
▪ This means that the energy will go from places with high energy to low energy.
▪ Conduction takes place in solids.
▪ Metals are good conductors of heat because they have free electrons which carry
energy through the object.
▪ Bad conductor = Insulator

How It Works
The molecules vibrate, this causes them to collide into the other molecules, which collide
into other molecules, and so on.

Demonstrating Conduction
The following experiment is used to get the conduction properties of two metals:

1. Copper
2. Iron

We use metal rods, and we put wax at the ends of them.

wax on copper melts first and Iron wax melts next.

This tells us that Copper is a better conductor of heat than Iron.

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 Convection
▪ Convection takes place in fluids (liquids & gases).
▪ Convection is basically when you transfer energy through a material through warmer
to colder place by moving the material itself.

▪ Example would be when warm air rises in a room… the molecule in the air is moved
upwards.
o (Air rises because its density decreases which causes it to rise)

Convection Currents
Figure:

Me Trying to Explain the Figure

Things to know:

1. cool air is dense

2. warm air less dense

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What happens:

1. The cool air is first converted to warm air by the radiator.

2. The warm air rises as it is less dense.
3. As the warm air goes to the other wall, it loses energy and becomes cool again (it
also pushed by the warm air behind it).
4. This cool air is denser which causes it to fall and is also pushed down.
5. the cool air then replaces the cool air at the bottom which pushes it into the
radiator.
6. These steps happen in an endless loop (until the radiator is off)

That is a convection current

(Hope I did a decent job explaining it)

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 Radiation
▪ Vacuum: Empty space with no molecules/matter.
▪ Radiation can happen in vacuums.
▪ Radiation is when the energy is carried by particles or waves.

Infrared Radiation
▪ Produced by warm objects
▪ It is an electromagnetic wave
▪ Travels through vacuum (and air) as waves.
▪ Travels in straight lines
▪ Warms the object that absorbs it
▪ Cannot be seen by our eyes
▪ Can be detected by our nerve cells

How Do We Sense Infrared Rays?

We have many ways to detect infrared rays, one way is by using an infrared camera.

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 Absorbers & Emitters
▪ Emitters: An object that emits something (in this case, heat)
▪ Absorbers: An object that absorbs something (heat in this case)

▪ Shiny Surfaces = Best Reflectors + Worst Absorbers

▪ White Surfaces = Best Reflectors + Worst Absorbers
▪ Matt Black Surfaces = Worst Reflectors + Best Absorbers + Best Emitter

How To Not Let Heat Escape from Our Houses

▪ In the winter, we want our houses to be warm, the problem is that we can lose heat
thanks to physics.
▪ Now we need to know how to prevent heat from escaping.
▪ There are many ways we do this in our houses:

Method What It Does

Thick Curtains + Draught Excluders
Loft + Underfloor Insulating Materials
Double & Triple Glazing of Windows
Wall Cavities
Foam/Rockwool in Wall Cavities
Stops convection currents
Prevents conduction through floor and ceiling.
Vacuum between glasses prevents conduction and
convection
Reduces heat loss though conduction &
convection
Reduces heat loos by convection

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 Formulas To Remember

SHC

𝐸𝑛𝑒𝑟𝑔𝑦
𝑆𝑝𝑒𝑐𝑖𝑓𝑖𝑐 𝐻𝑒𝑎𝑡 𝐶𝑎𝑝𝑎𝑐𝑖𝑡𝑦 =
𝑀𝑎𝑠𝑠 ∗ 𝐶ℎ𝑎𝑛𝑔𝑒 𝐼𝑛 𝑇𝑒𝑚𝑝𝑒𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑢𝑟𝑒

𝐸
𝑐=
𝑚 ∗ ∆𝑇

Boyle’s Law

𝐶𝑜𝑛𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑛𝑡 = 𝑝𝑉

𝐶𝑜𝑛𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑛𝑡 = 𝑃𝑟𝑒𝑠𝑠𝑢𝑟𝑒 ∗ 𝑉𝑜𝑙𝑢𝑚𝑒

𝑃1 𝑉1 = 𝑃2 𝑉2

𝐼𝑛𝑖𝑡𝑖𝑎𝑙 𝑃𝑟𝑒𝑠𝑠𝑢𝑟𝑒 ∗ 𝐼𝑛𝑖𝑡𝑖𝑎𝑙 𝑉𝑜𝑙𝑢𝑚𝑒 = 𝐹𝑖𝑛𝑎𝑙 𝑃𝑟𝑒𝑠𝑠𝑢𝑟𝑒 ∗ 𝐹𝑖𝑛𝑎𝑙 𝑉𝑜𝑢𝑚𝑒

Kelvin (K) To Celsius (C)

𝐾𝑒𝑙𝑣𝑖𝑛 = 𝐶𝑒𝑙𝑠𝑖𝑢𝑠 + 273

𝐾 = 𝐶 + 273

Celsius (C) To Kelvin (K)

𝐶𝑒𝑙𝑠𝑖𝑢𝑠 = 𝐾𝑒𝑙𝑣𝑖𝑛 − 273

𝐶 = 𝐾 − 273

(Pretty Sure That is It for Thermal Physics)

(The End & Thanks for Reading!)

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