Hot or Cold

Heat is relative! The ice in a refrigerator is hotter than the ice on the Everest, which in turn is hotter than ice in Antarctica -- the coldest place on earth. The ice at Antarctica is hotter than liquid nitrogen, which is hotter than liquid helium! A lighted match that is hot enough to burn your finger would not provide much heat in a cold room. On the other hand a large vat of hot water -- which although is much cooler than the match -would do a better job of heating the same room. Heat is a form of energy, with which every human being is familiar, wherever he/she may be. The clock of life is indeed controlled by heat -- remove heat,, the clock gets slower. The topic of heat has therefore yielded a rich crop of queries from youngsters. Let us begin with the following: The concept Heat What exactly is heat, how is it related to temperature? Why does the combustion of a fuel produce heat? Why does water and 'ghee' hardens at low temperature while oil doesn't? Why there is heat in sunlight but not in moonlight? If an iron or metal rod is heated, why does it change colour at different temperatures? Why is fire hot? Why is a glowing filament bulb hot while a tube-light is not ? Why does a piece of wire become hot when it is bent back and forth again and again? Why does an iron bar become hot when it is repeatedly hit by a hammer? How does water evaporate at normal temperature? If the phenomenon of radioactivity is independent of temperature, will there be any radioactivity at absolute zero? Heat is the energy in the motion of atoms. Motion can be translational, like the motion of atoms in a plasma or a gas or a liquid. It may be vibrational, such as the oscillatory motion of atoms within a molecule or a solid matrix, or it may be rotatory

motion, i.e. motion due to rotation of atoms within a molecule about a particular axis. Temperature, then is a measure of the intensity of this motion. It depends on the average velocity of molecules in a gas, or the average vibrational frequency of atoms in a solid. Beating an iron bar with a hammer, or bending back and forth a metallic wire indeed increases these factors and that is why we feel a rise in their temperature. But temperature is not a measure of the total heat energy of a body. Even though two substances may be at the same temperature, they can have different values of energy in the form of heat (calories). This is because it takes more energy to move a molecule having a larger mass, and the energy in motion of each additional atom adds up to the energy in the form of heat. The difference between a burning matchstick and a vat of hot water, mentioned above, is thus understandable. The motion of molecules/atoms in a solid becomes more intense by the motion of electrons through it . An electric current is therefore invariably accompanied by heating up of the conductor. More the electric current or greater the electrical resistance, more is the heat produced. A filament lamp is hot because the material of its filament has high electrical resistance and the operating electrical current is also significant. Light produced from it is due to the very high temperature of its filament. The light from a tube-light, on the other hand, is due an electric discharge inside the tube containing mercury vapours. The excited mercury ions produced by the electric discharge emit ultraviolet rays, which interact with the fluorescent chemical coating on the inner walls of the tube to produce visible light. This process does not require a very high temperature. The translational motion and the forces of mutual attraction/repulsion between the atoms/molecules in it determine the state of a substance --solid, liquid or gas -- at a particular temperature. When the translational motion is less intense (lower temperature or heavier molecule) and the force of mutual attraction amongst constituent molecules is strong -- the substance is in solid state. A higher temperature can convert it into a liquid or a gas. The state of a substance at different temperature is determined by these two factors. The difference between the molecules of an edible oil and vanaspati ghee is essentially in their long hydrocarbon chains. While the hydrocarbon chain of oil has several double bonds (unsaturation) the vanaspati ghee has none (it is produced by hydrogenation of oils). The double bonds in the hydrocarbon chain of an oil make them more rigid than the hydrocarbon chains of a fully saturated ghee. The rigid chains restrict the approach of the polar (charged) heads of the molecules to come close to each other. Hence the intermolecular interactions in

oils are less stronger than in vanaspati ( or desi) ghee. Weaker intermolecular forces and looser packing of molecules result in a liquid state for the oils as opposed to solid state for ghee. On the other hand, water is in liquid state at room temperature because its molecules have much more intense translational motion (the molecules of water are much lighter than the molecules of an edible oil) although the intermolecular forces in water are much stronger than in an oil. At any particular temperature there are molecules in a substance, which have velocities more or less than the average velocity. The molecules having higher velocities can escape from the surface of a liquid or a solid -- a process known as evaporation. Thus there is always some water vapor above the surface of liquid water. The motion of atoms is accompanied by the motion of electrically charged particles (electrons, protons present in them ) hence heat is always associated with electromagnetic radiations. A hot body always radiates electromagnetic radiation and electromagnetic radiations heat a body. The frequency of such radiation depends on the frequency of vibrations or other such motion. Usually the electromagnetic radiation known as infra red radiation is associated with molecular vibrations and micro waves with rotational motion. Higher the temperature, higher is the frequency of the electromagnetic radiation emitted -- thus the temperature of a hot iron rod changes from red to bluish white as its temperature rises. The heat we experience due to exposure to the Sun is due to the influence of the electromagnetic radiation from it, or the molecular motions in the target substance. The intensity of radiation from the Sun is much greater than that from the moon which only reflects sunlight. In this context it may be useful to point to a fallacious phrase heat radiation from the Sun. Heat is not a radiation, it is energy in the motion of atoms, which can result from the interaction of any radiation with matter. Combustion is basically a chemical reaction, which involves rearrangement of atoms in the molecules of reactants. The energy stored in the chemical bonds of the product molecules formed is less than the energy stored in the bond of the fuel and other reactants e.g. air. The difference in these two energy values is the energy that appears as motion of product molecules i.e. heat. A flame (fire) is hot because it is made up of hot gases produced by the combustion process. The molecules of these hot gases radiate electromagnetic waves (visible and infra red) and move at a high average speed -- both of these factors contribute to the high temperature of a fire. Radioactivity is a nuclear process which is normally not influenced by the atomic motion, hence there is radioactivity even at the lowest possible temperatures.

Heat Transfer: Why does water pumped out from a tubewell or a handpump appear hot during winter, while during summer it appears cold? Why does an ice cube cool the water at the bottom of a tumbler rather than at the top? Why is it that a stone floor feels cold to bare feet in summer but a carpet on the same floor feels warmer? Why does hot milk cool faster if the vessel is immersed in water? Why does everything get hot under the sun but leaves do not? In winter why does a metal rod feel cooler than a wooden rod even though they may be at same temperature? Why does food packed in aluminum foil remains hot for a longer time? Why is the surface water in a pond warmer than the water at a depth? If black colour absorbs more heat and light then why do AC cars and rooms have blackened glasses and windowpanes? When an object that is made up of a material, which is a bad conductor of heat is heated its temperature does not rise much, where does the heat energy go?

Why doesnt a concrete slab crack during summer although the coefficient of expansion of steel embedded in it is different from that of cement/sand mixture? Two bodies in contact with one another influence the motion of atoms/molecules in one another. Heat is thus transferred from one body to another if there is a temperature difference between them. Atoms/molecules can also move from one segment of the body to other as in liquids and gases. This also provides a mode of heat transfer, besides radiation of electromagnetic waves from a hot body. A hot liquid in a vessel cools faster when immersed in a colder liquid, because the rate of heat transfer also depends on the heat capacity of the two substances. Liquid water has a higher heat capacity than air; therefore it is more efficient in removing heat from a tumbler of hot milk than air. Underground water is insulated from direct solar radiation; its temperature can only rise by heat transferred to it from the Earths crust in contact with it. The water from a tube well or a hand pump appears to be cold in summer and warm in winter because its temperature does not change as much as that of the atmosphere due to the changes in the intensity of incident solar radiations. Water in a pond or a lake on the other hand is exposed to direct solar radiation. It is also heated by conduction of heat from

the hot air above. But it is due to convection currents that the water at lower levels -whether in a lake or in a glass with ice tends to remain colder. Warm water being lighter than cold water always tends to move towards the top. In winter a metal rod feels colder on touching than a wooden rod at the same temperature, because in a metal rod heat from one part of the rod can move to another much more rapidly than in a wooden rod. When we hold a metal rod -- it being cooler than our hands -- heat is transferred from our hand to the rod. Hence it feels cooler. Whereas this does not happen when we hold a wooden rod, as wood is a bad conductor of heat. Similar is the case with a stone floor and the carpet during summer. Although the black glass panes absorb most of the solar radiation and get hotter, they do not heat the air inside the car because of much slower transfer of heat from the glass to the air inside. Food packed in an aluminium foil remains warm longer because the foil surface is highly reflecting. Heat radiation from food therefore is reflected back and the food does not lose heat by radiation. Also because it is non porous it does not allow hot water vapors from the food to escape easily. Light falling on a plant leaf is used partly for photosynthesis -- a chemical reaction which converts carbon dioxide and water into complex organic molecules using light energy. Also there is always some water in the leaf structure and some heat is consumed to evaporate it to vapors. Thus unlike in other objects solar radiation falling on the leaves is used up rather than just being transformed to infra red radiation. When an object is heated, the heat absorbed by the object can be distributed uniformly throughout the body --as is the case with materials which are good conductors of heat like metals, or the heat absorbed may remain largely localized near the area from where the heat is being absorbed as is the case with materials which are bad conductor of heat like wood or glass. The heat absorbed leads to a rise in temperature of the material in both the cases but in the second case the temperature rise is localized. As the temperature of a substance rises beyond a certain threshold, the substance may undergo some chemical reaction like burning of wood, or it may lead to a phase transition like melting of glass. But in either case the heat absorbed by the material remains either with the material or is radiated/conducted off to the surroundings. The steel used in reinforced concrete cement slabs has a lot of tensile strength (capacity to stretch) and the cement sufficient compressive strength (capacity to be compressed). Hence they can together accommodate small changes in length or diameter of the steel bars due to a rise of temperature. Thus although there is a difference in coefficient of expansion of steel and concrete the slab does not crack.

Refrigerator If the door of a refrigerator is left open then will it heat up the room or cool it? In cold places, the top layer of lakes and ponds freezes first, thus saving the aquatic life. But in a refrigerator the bottom layer in the ice tray freezes first. Why this difference? Why does hot water freeze faster than water at room temperature if kept in the freezer? A refrigerator is a device, which pumps heat from the air inside the freezer and food compartment to air outside using electrical energy. The efficiency of a heat pump is never cent percent. The energy used for pumping heat is always greater than the energy transferred (pumped). The electrical energy used for pumping is dissipated as heat energy to the surroundings. Thus whether we leave the door of a refrigerator open or closed, the room temperature will always rise -- unless an AC or a room cooler cools it. Only the bottom surface of an ice tray kept inside the freezer of a refrigerator is in direct contact with the metallic body of the chamber, which is cooled by the circulation of the refrigerant gases. The heat transfer from the liquid in such a vessel therefore is maximum at the bottom. It is therefore expected that the lower layers of water kept in the ice tray will freeze first. In case of lakes in very cold places, the reverse is true, since here it is the cool air above the surface of water, which takes up the heat, while the lower surface of the lake is at a much higher temperature as it is insulated from the changes of temperature above by a thick layer of water and ice. Hence in a lake the water at the top surface freezes first. The question regarding the rate of freezing of hot water vis a vis cold water has been repeatedly asked in almost all forums dealing with queries related to general science. Interestingly the website of Scientific American also hosts an Ask the Experts forum (www.sciam.com/askexpert/). This question is indeed in their archives. Some of the answers to this questions at this website may be of some interest to our readers. The first definitive answer is by Takamasa Takahasi , a physicist at St. Norbert College in De Pere, Wisconsin USA. He says The answer to does hot water freeze faster than cold water, is not usually, but possibly under certain conditions. It takes 540 calories to vaporize one gram of water, whereas it takes 100 calories to bring one gram of liquid water from 0 degrees Celsius to 100 degrees C. When water is hotter

than 80 degrees C, the rate of cooling by rapid vaporization is very high because each gram of water that evaporates draws at least 540 calories from the water left behind. This is a very large amount of heat compared with the one calorie per Celsius degree that is drawn from each gram of water as it cools by regular thermal conduction. "It all depends on how fast the cooling occurs, and it turns out that hot water will not freeze before cold water but will freeze before lukewarm water. Water at 100 degrees C, for example, will freeze before water warmer than 60 degrees C but not before water cooler than 60 degrees C. This phenomenon is particularly evident when the surface area that cools by rapid evaporation is large compared with the amount of water involved, such as when you wash a car with hot water on a cold winter day. Another situation in which hot water may freeze faster is when a pan of cold water and a pan of hot water of equal mass are placed in a freezer compartment. There is the effect of evaporation mentioned above, and also the thermal contact with the freezer shelf will cool the bottom part of the body of water. If water is cold enough, close to four degrees C (the temperature at which water is densest), then near-freezing water at the bottom will rise to the top. Convection currents will continue until the entire body of water is 0 degrees C, at which point all the water finally freezes. If the water is initially hot, cooled water at the bottom is denser than the hot water at the top, so no convection will occur and the bottom part will start freezing while the top is still warm. This effect, combined with the evaporation effect, may make hot water freeze faster than cold water in some cases. In this case, of course, the freezer will have worked harder during the given amount of time, extracting more heat from hot water." The second answer is from Robert Ehrlich of George Mason University, in Fairfax, Virginia, USA. He says: "There are two ways in which hot water could freeze faster than cold water. One way [described in Jearl Walker's book The Flying Circus of Physics (Wiley, 1975)] depends on the fact that hot water evaporates faster, so that if you started with equal masses of hot and cold water, there would soon be less of the hot water to freeze, and hence it would overtake the cold water and freeze first, because the lesser the mass, the shorter the freezing time. The other way it could happen (in the case of a flat-bottomed dish of water placed in a freezer) is if the hot water melts the ice under the bottom of the dish, leading to a better thermal contact when it refreezes." Apparently the following factors are of consequence to explain this phenomenon. 1. The rate of cooling

2. The loss of heat/mass due to evaporation 3. The convection currents 4. The thermal contact with the surface of the freezing cabinet Normally we would tend to overemphasize one or the other of these factors. For example, most people first factor alone. Hence we tend to uncover only part of the mystery. To uncover the whole plot, we may ask some very specific questions. For example: 1. Does water at 4 degrees C freeze before water at say 0 degree C? 2. Does water at 90 degrees C freeze before water at say 1 degree C? 3. What is the optimal temperature difference, which leads to this phenomenon? 4. Which of the factors mentioned above is paramount in almost all cases? To settle all such questions, one has to experiment and the experiments have to be carefully designed. we had suggested to our readers to conduct an experiment in a frost free freezing compartment. None of the reports we received mentioned this precaution, which is meant to minimize the fourth factor, mentioned above. Fred W. Decker, a meteorologist at Oregon State University, has claimed in his reply posted to the Scientific American website, that if the experiments are conducted in a walk in cold storage chamber, the cold water will always freeze sooner than hot water. Ambient temperature Why does the temperature vary from place to place in summer? Although they are closer to the Sun, why are the mountains cooler than the plains? Why do we feel hot on a cloudy day? Hot air is lighter than cold air, then why does Loo ( hot wind ) blow along the surface of the Earth ? Shouldn't it blow at higher altitudes? Why does the sun appear less hot sometimes and more hot at other times of the day? Why is temperature lower in the morning and evening and higher in the afternoon? The ambient temperature at a particular geographical location depends on several factors, which include: 1. The intensity of solar radiation received per unit area around that location -- higher intensity can lead to a higher temperature. It depends on the latitude of the place, the month of the year and the time of the day.

2. The altitude of the place -- because light from the Sun is converted into infra red radiation only after interaction with opaque objects on Earth. The atmosphere is therefore heated predominantly from below and as hot air rises up, movement of its molecules becomes slower (lose kinetic energy) and hence it gets cooler. 3. The density of air -- less dense air has lower heat capacity and allows more infra red radiation to pass through. 4. The temperature of neighboring locations -- large temperature differences can lead to air currents. 5. The density of vegetation in and around the location -- because most of the sunlight falling on the plants is used for photosynthesis, and the transpiration of water from the plants also cools the environs. 6. The presence of water masses (lakes or oceans) in the neighborhood -- because more energy is required to raise the temperature of a given weight of water by a given number of degrees than to raise the temperature of an equal weight of soil by an equal number of degrees ( the specific heat of water is very high, almost four times that of dry soil). Thus the explanation to the query: why the mountains are cooler is as follows. We know that at high altitudes the density of air is less, and so the temperature of the layer of atmosphere at that altitude is low. However it is not always true that the temperatures in mountains is always lower than in the plains. There are mountainous areas at high altitude, like in Ladakh, where the ambient temperatures can be fairly high during summer. This is due to the topography of the region which has vast areas of plateaus at high altitude. Hence the infrared radiation from the ground heats the air above the mountains in these places. This also explains the differences in ambient temperatures at different locations in the same mountain range at the same altitude. The variation of sensation of heat with time during the course of a day is mainly due to the changes in the intensity of solar radiation, which falls per unit area at that time. At noon the sunrays fall almost perpendicularly to the Earths surface, hence a beam of radiation is not distributed over a larger area as at sunrise or sunset -- when the sunrays fall obliquely to the Earths surface. A cloudy day is not necessarily hot, everybody residing in and around Delhi has experienced the cold relief clouds bring after a sweltering hot summer--the clouds shield a large proportion of solar radiation. But in coastal areas like Mumbai or Chennai a cloudy day can be often very uncomfortable because the proportion of water vapors in the air, on a cloudy day, is higher than normal (this is normally indicated by a high value of relative humidity). More heat thus gets stored in the atmospheric gases

( the specific heat of water vapours is higher than that of oxygen or nitrogen), hence we feel warmer. Loo, the hot surface winds during summer, is air currents near the land surface due to the difference in temperatures and pressure at different geographical regions in northern India. As the air passes above the desert regions of Rajasthan they get heated -- hence loo is hot. The differences in temperatures and pressure at different places arise either due to different vegetation density, presence of water masses and several other factors. Boiling, Burning and Reactions: If we put some water for boiling after covering it does not boil over even after reaching the boiling temperature but if we add some tea leaves to it it boils over. Why? Why does hot oil scatter when we pour cold water on it? Why is it that the milk rises and spills over when it boils and the water does not ? Water boiled in an air tight sealed flask starts boiling when some cold water is poured on it, why?

The combustion temperature of petroleum is 440 C yet petroleum stored in tanks at Barmer (Rajasthan) do not catch fire although the ambient temperature rises above this temperature?

Why does the filament in an electric lamp not burn up although its temperature is about 2700C when it glows? Why does sugar dissolve quickly in hot water and not in cold water?

Why do clothes wash better in warm water mixed with detergent than in cold water mixed with detergent? Bubbles on the surface generally characterize boiling of water, which is in fact

the dissolved air and steam escaping out. At the boiling temperature much more steam is formed at any instant of time. One, therefore, observes vigorous appearance of bubbles on the surface of boiling water. When milk is boiled the fats present in the milk collect on the surface in the form a thin membrane. This membrane does not allow the dissolved air to escape in the form of bubbles, and it is flexible enough to bloat as more air gets collected. This explains the rising of milk on boiling. When some tea leaves (dust) is added to water near its boiling point, the dust particles provide many nucleus sites for the air bubbles to form, hence a vigorous evolution of bubbles is observed.

The boiling temperature of oil is much higher than that of water. The observed sputtering of water from hot oil is because the water is instantly converted into steam, and small bubbles containing steam and some oil sputter out. The boiling temperature of a liquid also depends on its vapor pressure above it. If we boil a liquid in a closed container, the evolved vapors add up to the vapor pressure above its surface, and as the vapour pressure rises so does the boiling temperature. Thus when water is heated in a closed container it will not boil at 100 degree Celsius and the temperature of the liquid can rise much above 1000 C. When cold water is poured over such a container, some water vapours inside get condensed and the vapor pressure therefore decreases and at that lowered vapour pressure water can boil again. For the combustion of a substance two conditions must be satisfied: (i) The substance must be at a temperature above its ignition temperature, (ii) The proportion of combustible material to the supporter of combustion should be optimal. Petroleum even at temperature above its ignition temperature will not catch fire if enough air is not available for its combustion. Inside a petrol tank it is only the petroleum vapours, which are present above the liquid. The filament substance inside a bulb does not burn even at 27000 C, because usually these bulbs are either evacuated or filled with an inert gas like nitrogen. At higher temperature the motion of atoms in molecules is more intense, this helps any chemical transformation or dissolution of a solid into a solvent liquid. That is why sugar dissolves quickly at higher temperature. Similarly hot water helps in better dispersal of dirt particles from soiled clothes. Other Interesting Questions Why only a hot iron is used to press wrinkled clothes? Why do some glass or ceramic vessels crack or break on pouring hot liquids into them? Does the density of blood change on heating? What is the effect of expansion of bones due to heat on human body? A solid becomes softer as its temperature rises and hence becomes more amenable to changes in shape, because the molecular packing can be rearranged more easily as their motion gets more intense. Cotton fabrics are made up of cellulose fiber, which has a pipe like structure. Cotton fabric becomes wrinkled on washing, because in this process some fibers of the fabric get elongated or stretched. These fibers can be reordered into original shape, more easily at higher temperature because this helps

water molecules to smuggle into the hollow tubes, swell them up and make them softer for realignment. Atoms/molecules moving more intensely also occupy more space. The expansion of a solid depends on the nature of the constituent atoms as well as their distribution in the solid. A non uniform distribution of matter in certain types of shapes can lead to excessive tension on expansion. These tensions caused on expansion of material are the root cause of cracks and breaks in crockery. The temperature of a living human body does not vary much remains in a very narrow range (about 5 0C). Also the tissues of a living body are usually very flexible hence the small expansion of the bones, if any is accommodated by the elastic tissues.