# About heat rate and dimensions convention [closed]

Suppose I have a ceiling and its dimension are given in $Z \times C \times Y$, and a it's got a thermal conductivity $k$. Now, I want to know H, or the heat rate. It's given by $H =\frac{kA(T_h -T_c)}{L}$. Where $T_h \ and \ T_c$ are the hot and cold temperature difference. How do I use the given dimensions for $A$ and $L$? Can I just assume $Z \times C$ is the area $A$ and $Y$ is $L$?

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## closed as not a real question by Qmechanic♦, Ron Maimon, Manishearth♦, Waffle's Crazy Peanut, Emilio PisantyDec 18 '12 at 15:48

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what are $Z$, $C$ and $Y$? –  Pygmalion May 9 '12 at 18:57
Those were actually the dimensions for volume. Like LxWxH, not sure if the problem given to me corresponds to those though. –  Dystopian May 9 '12 at 19:06
Are these dimension of ceiling wall? And which is which, or more specific, which one is vertical dimension? –  Pygmalion May 9 '12 at 19:09
-1: this is not a mind-reading site. –  Ron Maimon May 10 '12 at 0:55
No, I'm thinking that maybe I'm utterly wrong about thinking A is ZxC or L is Y, whatever the dimensions stand for. I thought that has some merit to it. –  Dystopian May 10 '12 at 3:22

$L$ is thickness of the the layer and $A$ is area of the layer between two temperatures. The answer depends on what $Z$, $C$ and $Y$ stand for.