Untitled Lesson

Temperature, Thermal

Energy, and Heat

Section 1

Essential Questions

What is temperature?

How are thermal energy and temperature related?

What is the difference between thermal energy
and heat?

How can you calculate changes in thermal
energy?

Review Vocabulary

energy: the ability to cause change; equivalent to
the ability to do work

New Vocabulary

temperature

thermal energy

heat

specific heat

Temperature

You can use the words hot and cold to describe
temperature. Something is hot when its temperature
is high. When you heat water on a stove, its
temperature increases.

The particles that make
up the left burner are
moving faster than the
particles that make up
the right burner.

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Thermal Energy

The thermal energy of an object is the sum of the
kinetic energy and the potential energy of all of the
particles that make up that object. As the butter
warmed and the kinetic energy of its particles
increased, the butter’s thermal energy increased.

Heat

Heat is energy that is transferred between objects
due to a temperature difference between those
objects. Warmer objects always heat cooler objects,
but the reverse never occurs. For example, a hot
stove will heat a cold pot of water. However, a cold
pot of water can never heat a hot stove.

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Specific Heat

The specific heat of a material is the
amount of heat needed to raise the
temperature of 1 kg of that material
by 1°C. Scientists measure specific
heat in joules per kilogram degree
Celsius [J/(kg · °C)].

Measuring Specific Heat

A scientist can calculate the specific heat of a material
from the measurements that he or she takes from a
calorimeter, such as the one shown below. To
determine the specific heat of a material using a
calorimeter, a scientist measures the mass of a sample
of the material and the mass and
initial temperature of the water
in the calorimeter. The scientist
then heats the sample, measures
the sample’s temperature, and
places the sample in the water in
the inner chamber of the
calorimeter.

Its total energy increases, then decreases.

D

Its total energy is increasing.

C

Its total energy is constant.

B

Its total energy is decreasing.

A

If work is greater than heat in
the figure, then what must be
true about the couch?

Assessment

1.

CORRECT

plastic

D

air

C

feathers

B

iron

A

Which material is a poor thermal insulator?

Assessment

2.

CORRECT

thermal energy

D

potential energy

C

specific heat

B

temperature

A

Which term describes the measure of the average
kinetic energy of the particles that make up an object?

Assessment

3.

CORRECT

insulation

D

conduction

C

radiation

B

heat

A

Which is energy that is transferred between objects due
to a temperature difference between those objects?

Assessment

4.

CORRECT