Heat

In physics and chemistry, heat is energy transferred from one body to another by thermal
interactions.
[1][2]
The transfer of energy can occur in a variety of ways, among
them conduction,
[3]
radiation,
[4]
and convection. Heat is not a property of a system or body, but
instead is always associated with a process of some kind, and is synonymous with heat
flow and heat transfer.
Heat flow from hotter to colder systems occurs spontaneously, and is always accompanied by an
increase in entropy. In a heat engine, internal energyof bodies is harnessed to provide useful work.
The second law of thermodynamics prohibits heat flow directly from cold to hot systems, but with
the aid of a heat pump external work can be used to transport internal energy indirectly from a cold
to a hot body.
Transfers of energy as heat are macroscopic processes. The origin and properties of heat can be
understood through the statistical mechanics of microscopic constituents such
as molecules and photons. For instance, heat flow can occur when the rapidly vibrating molecules
in a high temperature body transfer some of their energy (by direct contact, radiation exchange, or
other mechanisms) to the more slowly vibrating molecules in a lower temperature body.
The SI unit of heat is the joule. Heat can be measured by calorimetry,
[5]
or determined indirectly by
calculations based on other quantities, relying for instance on the first law of thermodynamics.
In calorimetry, the concepts of latent heat and of sensible heat are used. Latent heat produces
changes of state without temperature change, while sensible heat produces temperature change.

Heat in physics is defined as energy transferred by thermal interactions. Heat flows spontaneously
from hotter to colder systems. When two systems come into thermal contact, they exchange energy
through the microscopic interactions of their particles. When the systems are at different
temperatures, the result is a spontaneous net flow of energy that continues until the temperatures
are equal. At that point the net flow of energy is zero, and the systems are said to be in thermal
equilibrium. Spontaneous heat transfer is an irreversible process.
The first law of thermodynamics states that the internal energy of an isolated system is conserved.
To change the internal energy of a system, energy must be transferred to or from the system. For
a closed system, heat and work are the mechanisms by which energy can be transferred. For an
open system, internal energy can be changed also by transfer of matter.
[6]
Work performed by a
body is, by definition, an energy transfer from the body that is due to a change to external or
mechanical parameters of the body, such as the volume, magnetization, and location of center of
mass in a gravitational field.
[7][8][9][10][11]

When energy is transferred to a body purely as heat, its internal energy increases. This additional
energy is stored as kinetic and potential energy of the atoms and molecules in the body.
[12]
Heat
itself is not stored within a body. Like work, it exists only as energy in transit from one body to
another or between a body and its surroundings.
Transfers of energy between closed systems
Adiabatic transfer of energy as work between two bodies
A body can be connected to its surroundings by links that allow transfer of energy only as work, not
as heat, because the body is adiabatically isolated. Such transfer can be of two pure kinds, volume
work, and isochoric work. Volume work means that the initial volume and the final volume of the
body are different, and that mechanical work is transferred through the forces that cause the
changes in the deformation parameters. Isochoric work is done on the body by the surroundings
when the initial and final volumes and all deformation parameters of the body are unchanged. For
example, the surroundings can do work through a changing magnetic field that rotates a magnetic
stirrer within the body. Another example is 'shaft work', in which an externally driven shaft rotates
fan- or paddle-blades within the body. Another example is rubbing, considered as tangential motion
of a wall that contains the body. Stirring and rubbing were the main forms of work in Joule's
experiments.
Transfers of energy as heat between two bodies
Referring to conduction, Partington writes: "If a hot body is brought in conducting contact with a cold
body, the temperature of the hot body falls and that of the cold body rises, and it is said that
a quantity of heat has passed from the hot body to the cold body.
Referring to radiation, Maxwell writes: "In Radiation, the hotter body loses heat, and the colder body
receives heat by means of a process occurring in some intervening medium which does not itself
thereby become hot.
Transfers of energy involving more than two bodies
Heat engine
In classical thermodynamics, a commonly considered model is the heat engine. It consists of four
bodies: the working body, the hot reservoir, the cold reservoir, and the work reservoir. A cyclic
process leaves the working body in an unchanged state, and is envisaged as being repeated
indefinitely often. Work transfers between the working body and the work reservoir are envisaged
as reversible, and thus only one work reservoir is needed. But two thermal reservoirs are needed,
because transfer of energy as heat is irreversible. A single cycle sees energy taken by the working
body from the hot reservoir and sent to the two other reservoirs, the work reservoir and the cold
reservoir. The hot reservoir always and only supplies energy and the cold reservoir always and only
receives energy. The second law of thermodynamics requires that no cycle can occur in which no
energy is received by the cold reservoir.
Convective transfer of energy
Convective transfer of energy involves three or more systems, which may be closed or open. A
process of convection takes some finite amount of time, because it involves three steps at least.
The simplest kind of convection has a hot reservoir, a cold reservoir, and a carrier body. In this
simplest kind of convection, the carrier body exchanges heat successively with the respective
thermal reservoirs. The second law of thermodynamics requires the carrier body to be initially colder
than the hot reservoir and finally warmer than the cold reservoir. For convection in general, the
transfers of energy can be of more general kinds. For example, for convection between open
systems, the transfers may be more conveniently described in terms of internal energy, or
of enthalpy, or of some other quantity of energy. Here a convenient model is described by internal
energy. First, the carrier body increases its internal energy by taking internal energy from the source
reservoir. Then it moves through space and carries its internal energy from the location of the
source reservoir to that of the destination reservoir; this step is characteristic of convection, and is
sometimes called advection. Then it decreases its internal energy by giving energy to the
destination reservoir. Convection can transfer internal energy as latent heat, and can be from a
source at a lower temperature to a destination at a higher one, work being provided to drive the
transfer.
Notation and units
As a form of energy heat has the unit joule (J) in the International System of Units (SI). However, in
many applied fields in engineering the British Thermal Unit (BTU) and the calorie are often used.
The standard unit for the rate of heat transferred is the watt (W), defined as joules per second.
The total amount of energy transferred as heat is conventionally written as Q for algebraic
purposes. Heat released by a system into its surroundings is by convention a negative quantity
(Q < 0); when a system absorbs heat from its surroundings, it is positive (Q > 0). Heat transfer rate,
or heat flow per unit time, is denoted by . This should not be confused with a time derivative of a
function of state (which can also be written with the dot notation) since heat is not a function of
state. Heat flux is defined as rate of heat transfer per unit cross-sectional area, resulting in the
unit watts per square metre.
Estimation of quantity of heat
The quantity of heat transferred by some process can either be directly measured, or determined
indirectly through calculations based on other quantities.
Direct measurement is by calorimetry and is the primary empirical basis of the idea of quantity of
heat transferred in a process. The transferred heat is measured by changes in a body of known
properties, for example, temperature rise, change in volume or length, or phase change, such as
melting of ice.
[28][29]

Indirect estimations of quantity of heat transferred rely on the law of conservation of energy, and, in
particular cases, on the first law of thermodynamics. Indirect estimation is the primary approach of
many theoretical studies of quantity of heat transferred.