Things sure are heating up at Nye Labs.
Snow cones, flowers, hot dogs, people -- everything is made of molecules. No matter what they're in, solid, liquid, or gas, molecules are always
.. show full overview
Things sure are heating up at Nye Labs.
Snow cones, flowers, hot dogs, people -- everything is made of molecules. No matter what they're in, solid, liquid, or gas, molecules are always moving, even if just a little bit. The speed of the molecules depends on their temperature. Cold things have slow-moving molecules, while hot things have fast-moving molecules. In fact, temperature is really a measurement of molecule speed. For a cold thing to get warm, its molecules have to speed up.
Heat moves in three different ways -- conduction, convection, and radiation. Conduction is the flow of heat between two solid objects that are touching. Heat conducts from your warm fingertips into a cold can of soda. Convection is the transfer of heat with a liquid or gas. A hot bath feels warm all over not just where you're sitting. Convection also happens naturally. When air gets warmed by a hot burner, it's molecules speed up and spread out. Then, cold air molecules squeeze the warm spread-out molecules