Lesson 2.1 - Heat and Temperature

Heat and temperature are different, but often they are confused with each other.  Do you know the difference?  If you know the difference, this will be a very easy lesson.  Let's test you to find out!

Do the two beakers of water shown below have the same amount of heat?

                                     

Do the two beakers of water shown below have the same temperature?

                                   

Did you answer yes to both questions?  If you did, you need to learn about heat and temperature.  If you answered no to question 1 and yes to question 2, you might know many of the concepts that will be covered. 

Read page 86 in your textbook and answer the following questions.

Question 1. What is the definition of heat ?

Question 2. What is the definition of thermal energy ?

Question 3. What is the definition of kinetic energy ?

Question 4. What is the definition of temperature ?

Question 5. Are heat and thermal energy the same?

Question 6. Are heat and temperature the same?  How are they different?

Question 7. You are given two pieces of copper, one is larger than the other.  Both pieces are at 75°C.  Do the two pieces of copper have the same amount of heat?

 

Check your answers with those that follow.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Answers to Questions:

Question 1. What is the definition of heat ? 

Heat is defined as "the sum of all kinetic energies of all particles in an object".

Question 2. What is the definition of thermal energy ?

Thermal energy and heat mean the same thing in this textbook, so they will be used interchangeably in this course.

Question 3. What is the definition of kinetic energy ?

Kinetic energy is defined as "the energy associated with motion".  It does not matter how big the particles are, kinetic energy is the energy of the moving particles.

Question 4. What is the definition of temperature ?

Temperature is defined as "the average kinetic energy of all the particles in an object".

Question 5. Are heat and thermal energy the same?

As explained in question 4, they will mean the same thing in this course.

Question 6. Are heat and temperature the same?  How are they different?

No, heat and temperature are different.  Heat is the sum of kinetic energies of all particles in an object; temperature is a measure of the average kinetic energy of all the particles in an object.  This is a very important difference, and if you get this wrong, you will likely have trouble in this unit.

Question 7. You are given two pieces of copper, one is larger than the other.  Both pieces are at 75°C.  Do the two pieces of copper have the same amount of heat?

No. Because heat is the sum of the kinetic energies of all particles in an object, the larger piece of copper (at the same temperature as the smaller one) will have more heat than the smaller one. 

 


Go to the next page to continue learning about heat and temperature.