Unit C Lesson C1 Why is Heat so Important?
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Lesson C1: Why is Heat So Important?
Video Lesson
We know that heat is energy, but this wasn't always the case through history. Watch the following video to learn the story of this discovery and why heat is so important.
Lesson C1: Why is Heat So Important?
Figure C.1.1.1– Heat can keep you warm when outdoors.
Figure C.1.1.2– Heat allows us to cook our food.
Why is Heat Important?
Going camping can be a lot of fun, but it doesn't take long out in the wilderness until you might get a little cold. Then there is the problem of cooking your food. Heat can solve these, and much more serious problems. The key to understanding why heat can be such a problem solver is realizing that heat is a form of energy.
Going camping can be a lot of fun, but it doesn't take long out in the wilderness until you might get a little cold. Then there is the problem of cooking your food. Heat can solve these, and much more serious problems. The key to understanding why heat can be such a problem solver is realizing that heat is a form of energy.
Reading and Materials for This Lesson:
Science in Action 7
Materials:
Science in Action 7
Reading: Pages 180-185
Materials:
No other materials are required for this lesson.
Figure C.1.1.3 – Some humans don't handle cold very well.
Figure C.1.1.4 – Wim Hof has an amazing tolerance for cold.
Humans and Heat
Most human beings do not handle cold well, but there are always exceptions. Wim Hof is a Dutch man who is quite incredible when it comes to cold. Wim hold many world records for his ability to handle cold that would be very dangerous for the rest of us. If you have ever held your ice or snow in your bare hands, you know that it becomes very uncomfortable in only a minute of two. Wim Hof, on the other hand, holds the world record for having his whole body in an ice bath. He survived an ice bath for over 1 hour and 13 minutes!
How does Wim Hof do it? Scientists who have studied him have found that Wim has the unique ability to turn up his own internal body heat whenever he wants, just by thinking about it. This is a very rare ability, Wim seems to have his own built-in furnace!
Most of us are not like Wim Hof. Without proper protection, we will not survive long in temperatures below freezing. Human beings have several survival needs; we need food, water, air to breathe, and we also need to exist at a specific range of temperatures. The fact that we cannot survive getting too cold or too hot means that controlling heat is a very important part of our lives.
Most human beings do not handle cold well, but there are always exceptions. Wim Hof is a Dutch man who is quite incredible when it comes to cold. Wim hold many world records for his ability to handle cold that would be very dangerous for the rest of us. If you have ever held your ice or snow in your bare hands, you know that it becomes very uncomfortable in only a minute of two. Wim Hof, on the other hand, holds the world record for having his whole body in an ice bath. He survived an ice bath for over 1 hour and 13 minutes!
How does Wim Hof do it? Scientists who have studied him have found that Wim has the unique ability to turn up his own internal body heat whenever he wants, just by thinking about it. This is a very rare ability, Wim seems to have his own built-in furnace!
Most of us are not like Wim Hof. Without proper protection, we will not survive long in temperatures below freezing. Human beings have several survival needs; we need food, water, air to breathe, and we also need to exist at a specific range of temperatures. The fact that we cannot survive getting too cold or too hot means that controlling heat is a very important part of our lives.
Watch More
In this video, Wim Hof shows how he can swim in water so cold that it could stop the heart of a normal person.
Heat and Technology
Having enough heat for survival is just part of the story. Humans do not just have needs, they also have many wants.
Many humans choose to live comfortably and with many perks of technology. A short way to express that is to say people who enjoy comfortable perks have a higher standard of living. Having a higher standard of living often means using and controlling heat to get what we want.
Heat-removing Technology
The strange device you see in figure C.1.1.6 is called a heat sink. Most people don't look inside their computers, but in almost all of them, you will find heat sinks with fans attached like this one.
Having enough heat for survival is just part of the story. Humans do not just have needs, they also have many wants.
Many humans choose to live comfortably and with many perks of technology. A short way to express that is to say people who enjoy comfortable perks have a higher standard of living. Having a higher standard of living often means using and controlling heat to get what we want.
Heat-removing Technology
The strange device you see in figure C.1.1.6 is called a heat sink. Most people don't look inside their computers, but in almost all of them, you will find heat sinks with fans attached like this one.
Figure C.1.1.5 – Humans want heat as part of their comfort.
Computers have parts that will overheat if excess heat is not removed – that's the job of a heat sink.
Can you think of other examples of heat-removing technology?
Heat-producing Technology
What about heat-producing technology? Glass can be classified as a human want – we want glass for containers, for our vehicles, for our homes, even for art. We could probably live without glass, but we choose not to. That choice means we need to produce and add heat to the raw ingredients for glass (mostly sand) to melt them to make the things we want.
Can you think of other examples of heat-producing technology?
Figure C.1.1.6 – This device keeps your computer cool.
Figure C.1.1.7 – Preparing glass requires a lot of heat.
Figure C.1.1.8 – Melting glass can produce beautiful works of art.
Heat Engines
Heat can do more than just warm you up, it can power engines as well. A steam locomotive is a great example of a heat engine. A steam locomotive works by heating water into steam, which in turn makes the parts of an engine move. In a locomotive, that movement is used to turn the wheels. All heat engines convert heat energy into the energy of movement, also known as kinetic energy.
Find out more about heat engines
by clicking here to Explore with Elsie.
Make sure you have understood everything in this lesson. Use the Self-Check below, and the Self-Check & Lesson Review Tips to
guide your learning.
Unit C Lesson 1 Self-Check
Instructions
Complete the following 6 steps.
Don't skip steps – if you do them in order, you will confirm your
understanding of this lesson and create a study bank for the future.
- DOWNLOAD the self-check quiz by clicking here.
- ANSWER all the questions on the downloaded quiz in the spaces provided. Think carefully before typing your answers. Review this lesson if you need to. Save your quiz when you are done.
- COMPARE your answers with the suggested "Self-Check Quiz Answers" below. WAIT! You didn't skip step 2, did you? It's very important to carefully write out your own answers before checking the suggested answers.
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REVISE your quiz answers if you need to. If you answered all the questions correctly, you can skip this step. Revise means to change, fix, and add extra notes if you need to. This quiz is NOT FOR MARKS, so it is perfectly OK to correct
any mistakes you made. This will make your self-check quiz an excellent study tool you can use later.
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Self-Check Time!
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Self-Check Quiz Answers
Click each of the suggested answers below, and carefully compare your answers to the suggested answers.
If you have not done the quiz yet – STOP – and go back to step 1 above. Do not look at the answers without first trying the questions.
The human body survives in a very narrow temperature range. If a person’s body temperature becomes too cold, he or she cannot survive. Being exposed to cold temperatures without warm clothing puts a person’s health and life at risk.
During the winter, the water in outdoor troughs freezes. An electric heater keeps water in liquid form so animals can survive.
We know that heat is energy because other types of energy can change into heat energy.
- Example 1: Electrical energy changes into heat energy in a water heating element.
- Example 2: Antoine Lavoisier demonstrated how mechanical energy from moving paddles in water changed into heat energy.
There are many ways that heat makes our lives comfortable. For example:
- Heat keeps our houses warm and comfortable on cold days.
- Heat works for us, drying clothes in an electric dryer or drying dishes in a dishwasher, for example.
- Heat is used to melt materials and make products we want from metal, plastic, or glass.
Steam engines on trains made trains move quickly. Steam engines changed transportation dramatically because people and products could be moved much more quickly than in the past.