Thermal Energy

THERMAL ENERGY

If you leave a cup of hot milk on a table for some time, what happens? The hotness of the milk decreases after some time. Similarly, if you keep a bottle of cold water on a table, the water becomes warmer after some time. What do you infer from these observations? In the case of hot milk, there is a flow of energy from the cup of milk to the environment. In the second case, the energy is transferred from the environment to the water bottle. This energy is termed as “thermal energy”.

When a hot object is in contact with another cold object, a form of energy flows from the hot object to the cold object, which is known as thermal energy. Thus, thermal energy is a form of energy which is transferred between any two bodies due to the difference in their temperatures. Thermal energy is also known as 'heat energy' or simply 'heat'.

Heat energy is the agent, which produces the sensation of warmth and makes bodies hot. The process in which heat energy flows from a body at a higher temperature to another object at lower temperature is known as heating . This process of transmission of heat may be done in any of the ways like conduction, convection or radiation. Heat is a scalar quantity. The SI unit of heat energy absorbed or evolved is joule (J) .

During the process of transferring heat energy, the body at lower temperature is heated while the body at higher temperature is cooled. Thus, sometimes, this process of transfer of heat energy is termed as 'cooling'. But, in most of the cases the term 'heating' is used instead of 'cooling'. When the thermal energy is transferred from one body to another, this results in the rise or lowering of the temperature of either of the bodies.

Characteristic features of heat energy transfer

·                 Heat always flows from a system at higher temperature to a system at lower temperature.

·                 The mass of a system is not altered when it is heated or cooled.

·                 For any exchange of heat, the heat gained by the cold system is equal to heat lost by the hot system. Heat gained = Heat lost

Other units of Heat energy

Though the SI unit of heat energy is joule, there are some other commonly used units.

Calorie: One calorie is defined as the amount of heat energy required to rise the temperature of 1 gram of water through 1°C.

Kilocalorie: One kilocalorie is defined as the amount of heat energy required to rise the temperature of 1 kilogram of water through 1°C.