Heat is energy transferred from one system to another by thermal interaction. In contrast to work, heat is always accompanied by a transfer of entropy. Heat flow is characteristic of macroscopic objects and systems, but its origin and properties can be understood in terms of their microscopic ...
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978 views
Should I heat my room when I'm not here, energy-efficiently speaking?
I was wondering as it's getting cold : is it better for my electricity bill to shut down completely my (electric) heater during day, and to turn it on again when I come home (then it will have to heat ...
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1answer
180 views
When to use Heat Diffusivity eqn and when to use Fourier's law to find temperature distribution?
Let's say that there is a circular conical section that has diameter $D=.25x$ without any heat generation and I need to find the temperature distribution.
Originially I thought I could use the heat ...
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2answers
120 views
Does it make sense to have a theory of thermodynamics about coldness?
When someone comes in from the cold to a heated room, it sometimes feels like there is coldness radiating away from that person. Is there a sense in which we can say that coldness radiates similarly ...
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1answer
474 views
How does heat transfer between two atoms in solid material?
Been looking at heat equation and it's derivation, according to Wikipedia it uses 2 mathematical assumptions. My problem is that although it all seems OK, what is the physics of heat transfer in ...
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1answer
842 views
Heat Flux and Spatial Temperature Gradients
The derivation for Heat Equation I am reading starts by stating
Net change of heat inside $[x,x+\Delta x]$ = Net flux of heat across boundaries + Total heat generated inside $[x,x+\Delta x]$ and ...
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0answers
405 views
When do I know if energy stored in an object is 0 or nonzero? (Heat transfer)
There is uniform internal heat generation at $\dot{q}=5\times10^{7} \frac{W}{m^{3}}$ is occurring in a cylindrical nuclear reactor fuel rod of 50 mm diameter and under steady state conditions the ...
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1answer
277 views
Temperature change effected by electric heater [closed]
A 40-gallon electric water heater has a 10kW heating element. What will the water temperature be after 15 min of heating if the start temp is 50F degrees.
There must be an equation. I can't find it ...
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3answers
333 views
What made the keys in my pocket so hot?
Not sure where to ask this question - thought you guys would probably have the best idea!
Today a single key on my keychain in my pocket heated up so that it was too hot to handle and scalded my leg. ...
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1answer
273 views
Given two boiling temperatures and pressures, how can I find the latent heat?
I am given the fact that at a certain pressure a liquid boils at a corresponding temperature, at a different pressure it boils at a different temperature, and then I am asked to find the latent heat ...
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3answers
449 views
Can heat be extracted and concentrated? [closed]
If one could devise an answer to this question, electricity would be free for everyones disposal. (seems like a good dream but in reality free energy will be this worlds downfall)
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2answers
391 views
How much more energy does it take for a human body to heat 0C ice vs 0C water?
I'm trying to determine if going through the trouble of ingesting ice is worth the hassle versus ingesting ice-cold water, but my physics skills are rusty.
If I drink a gram of ice water at ~0C, my ...
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1answer
137 views
Is this a simple system in which no heat transfer is possible?
Let's say that a hot gas is trapped in a metal box. This metal box is magnetically suspended in another structure with a low temperature. The inner box does not touch anything. And there is a void in ...
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1answer
108 views
Heat transfer speed - affected by difference in relative heat?
If I put something at room temperature in an environment that is at roughly half room temperature, does it get colder less quickly than if it were placed into an environment with 1/4 room temperature, ...
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4answers
245 views
How to guess the content of a christmas present?
Let us assume that the present does not make any recognizable sounds when shaken (meow splat - the present now contains a dead kitten). Let us furthermore assume ...
5
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3answers
2k views
Could a sleeping bag be warmer if you are naked inside?
I have heard conflicting theories about the best way to keep warm in a sleeping bag in the winter. Some people say you should bundle up in your sleeping bag and another theory says that you should be ...
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1answer
250 views
Heat transfer, Cold vs. Hot
If you boil water inside a pot the outer rim bubbles first, I imagine because its hotter. Does that same concept apply for the inside of a refrigerator for example. Is the outer rim always more ...
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0answers
1k views
How to determine size of a Heat Exchanger?
I am designing a Tube heat-exchanger, similar to this:
My process requires water (at room temperature, 18C ~ 22C) that is being pumped out of a small tank (300 Liters) to be heated in a ...
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2answers
113 views
How does cooling scale with volume?
What equation would give me the answer to the question, "If i have a cup of water at a tempature of say boiling, how long would that cup of water take to cool off compared to say half that size of a ...
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3answers
3k views
Why is air a poor conductor of heat?
Today, I was reading an article How Thermoses Work
It goes on to explain all three processes of heat transfer:
Conduction
Radiation
Convection
In Convection, It states,
If it weren't for ...
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1answer
371 views
Understanding the Seebeck effect
Thermoelectricity is, as I understand it, the difference in voltage between the hot and cold ends of two dissimilar materials. If two materials are connected at two different junctions, the hot ...
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3answers
913 views
Does stirring water in a bucket in whirlpool keeps it warm?
I did an experiment when I was a teenager. I want to prove/see what really went on in that experiment.
When taking a bath, take a warm water in bucket and start taking a bath. You will notice that ...
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1answer
159 views
Does a water cooker element have to be 100C to get water to cook?
I understand that a water heater element is basically just adding energy to the mass of water in the container. So does that mean that the heater element only has to keep adding energy while the water ...
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0answers
143 views
Does a thermally expanding torus experience internal stress?
I'm trying to learn continuum mechanics and thermo-mechanics.
As we know, heating an object increases the mean atomic distance $a_0$ of the atoms in a rigid body. Let's assume it is a linear elastic ...
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1answer
223 views
Why does blowing on someone who is wet feel colder than on someone who is dry?
The title says it all. If I'm standing in the wind and I'm wet, I feel much
colder than when I'm dry. This is true no matter how warm or cold the water.
Why is this?
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2answers
168 views
why egg cooks slowly in mountains?
A quick Google tells me "Because water boils at a lower temperature at high altitudes". But I am not being able to understand this answer and fill-in the gap. Like, how does an egg cook in the first ...
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5answers
862 views
How do we perceive hotness or coldness of an object?
Some objects, especially metallic ones, feel cold on touching and others like wood, etc. feel warm on touching. Both are exposed to same environment and are in their stable state, so some kind of ...
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1answer
498 views
How does liquid convert to gas on getting thermal heat energy?
Say for example, when we heat, water converts to steam gas. How does it happen? What happens underneath giving rise to breaking of bond between molecules in liquid state and spreading them in gas ...
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1answer
133 views
Optical element is heated by laser: is it possible to get oscillating heat distribution?
Imagine that we have thin optical element, which is irradiated by laser. Laser heats element, so there is some heat distribution in element. There is a heat sink through upper and lower element faces ...
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2answers
249 views
Will the water added to an ice piece freeze?
Water, at room temperature is poured into a hole made of a block of melting ice(kept at room temperature).I was wondering if the water will ever freeze?
Thank you.
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3answers
261 views
Problem with an electricity / thermodynamics assignment
I've been trying to figure this one out for a while on my own, so I'd like to ask for your help if you could offer some.
The task states:
A heater made out of a wire with a diameter $R = ...
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0answers
617 views
What are typical values of the critical thickness of insulation?
As most people who've had any elementary heat transfer course are aware, when insulating a pipe, wire, etc, there is a critical thickness for the insulation below which it causes greater heat transfer ...
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1answer
100 views
What are the patterns appear after kernel averaging?
Having a 2D map filled uniformly by random values (Figure:top-left) to demonstrate a disordered phenomena, the next maps are ...
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0answers
95 views
To determine the age of the Earth by the cooling of the centre of the Earth [closed]
I was given an exercise to make a simple model that suggests that the age of the Earth is 78000 years old.
My current starting point is
$$u_{tt} = u_{xx}$$
so a wave equation. So in polar ...
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0answers
357 views
Heat equation and Bessel's function
Could someone please explain why if the time-independent heat equation can, via changing of variables, take the form of Bessel's equation that the $\sqrt\lambda$ should take the values of the zeros of ...
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1answer
311 views
Ceramic vase filled with boiling water makes a sound. Why?
I had some old flowers in a vase and noticed the water had become really stagnant, causing the whole room to smell like a fart. So I tipped out the flowers and the old water, and poured some boiling ...
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2answers
255 views
Why does a firebrand glow brightest before it burns out?
I've noticed this in match-sticks, and mango wood. After the flames die out, the brand glows red for a while. The glow is brightest right before it dies out.
My guess is that immediately before the ...
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3answers
655 views
How would you store heat?
Um .. naive question perhaps but if somebody wanted to store heat, how would they go about it? Can heat be stored?
I'm told that decomposing kitchen waste in a closed vessel results in a rise in ...
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1answer
3k views
Why is my tupperware sealed after heating it up in the microwave?
I had a vegetable soup in a crystal tupperware and I put it in the microwave to heat it up.
The funny thing is that when I took it out, it was impossible to open it up. The lid is bent towards the ...
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4answers
12k views
Heat transfer calculated from the specific heat formula
Say I have 10g of silver, whose specific heat is known to be 0.235. I've heated it up from 50.0C to 60.0C. How much heat has been transferred?
The equation is:
$$ Q = C_pm\Delta t $$
where Cp is ...
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1answer
652 views
Heat exchange depending on coolant flow direction
Consider a simplest case of a heat exchanger - two parallel pipes of flowing liquids (say, hot and cold) that have physical contact along some part of their length. Hot water of a certain temperature ...
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4answers
1k views
Heat in the car during sunny day
Why is it hotter inside an isolated car (air conditioning is off) than outside during a sunny day in summer?
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2answers
2k views
What happens to the absorbed light energy?
When light comes across with a solid material, some of it is reflected, some of it passes through and some of it is absorbed. I understand the reflection and passing through, but I don't understand ...
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3answers
367 views
Finite difference formulation of the heat equation with thermal conductivity in 1D
This may seem trivial, but I'm having some trouble deriving the finite difference form of the heat equation with a thermal conductivity function $a(x)$ depending on $x$:
$$\frac{\partial u(x, ...
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1answer
118 views
SDE for particle, PDE for the density
Given a particle on the plane we can assume that it follows 2D Brownian motion. On the other hand if there is a lot of such a Brownian particles one can be interested in the evolution of the density ...
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2answers
171 views
If I put 3 bottles of water next to each other in the fridge, which one is cold first?
I was wondering: If I put three bottles of water next to each other in the fridge, which one is cold first? Does it matter? Is it the one in the middle because it gets refrigerated by the other two?
...
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5answers
428 views
Should I cook two pieces of Canadian Bacon twice as long as one in a microwave?
It will probably depend on the size of the pieces... but at what point should I stop assuming a linear relationship?
I was prompted to ask in a previous question.
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3answers
444 views
Can temperature be defined as propensity to transmit thermal energy?
I was recently surprised to learn that defining temperature isn't easy. For a long time, it was defined operationally: how much does a thermometer expand. Also surprising, temperature isn't a ...
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2answers
3k views
Does tea stay hotter with the milk in it?
A little thought experiment, similar to this one: Imagine you are making a cup of tea when the door bell rings. You've poured the boiling water into a cup with a teabag in it. As you're just about to ...
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1answer
1k views
Why are lasers inefficient?
Why are lasers inefficient? Is it because of the heat lost during lasing? Why couldn't there be thermocouples or turbines in parts of the cooling circuits to extract something out of that heat?
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1answer
381 views
Heat & thermodynamics question based on heat loss [closed]
A Sphere A is placed on a smooth table.Another sphere B is suspended as shown in the figure.Both the spheres are identical in all respects.Equal quantity of heat is supplied to both spheres.All ...
