Heat Energy

A Science A–Z Physical Series

Word Count: 1,324

Heat
Energy

Written by Felicia Brown

Visit www.sciencea-z.com www.sciencea-z.com

heat energy a form of energy that is
transferred from an object
with a higher temperature
Heat Energy
to an object with a lower
temperature (p. 4)
insulator a material that reduces or
prevents the transfer of heat
(p. 16)
matter anything that takes up space
and has weight (p. 10)
radiant energy energy that travels
in waves (p. 8)
temperature the measure of hot and cold,
usually measured on a
thermometer (p. 11)
thermometer a tool used for measuring
temperature (p. 11)
transfer to move from one place
to another (p. 14)

Index
cooking, 4, 8, 16–18 Written by Felicia Brown

particles, 10–12, 13–15, 17, 18, 22

www.sciencea-z.com
sunlight, 8, 9, 19

24
 KEY ELEMENTS USED IN THIS BOOK
Glossary
The Big Idea: One of the most important types of energy on Earth is
heat energy. A great deal of heat energy comes from the Sun’s light
hitting Earth. Other sources include geothermal energy, friction, and conduction the transfer of heat from one
even living things. Heat energy is the driving force behind everything
we do. This energy gives us the ability to run, dance, sing, and play.
object to another (p. 14)
We also use heat energy to warm our homes, cook our food, power
our vehicles, and create electricity. conductor a material, usually a metal,
Key words: cold, conduction, conductor, convection, energy, evaporate,
fire, friction, fuel, gas, geothermal heat, geyser, heat energy, hot, insulation,
that transfers heat,
insulator, lightning, liquid, matter, particles, radiate, radiant energy, solid, electricity, or sound from
Sun, temperature, thermometer, transfer, volcano

Key comprehension skill: Cause and effect

one object to another (p. 16)
Other suitable comprehension skills: Compare and contrast; classify information;
main idea and details; identify facts; elements of a genre; interpret graphs, convection the transfer of heat by
charts, and diagram
movement in a liquid
Key reading strategy: Connect to prior knowledge
Other suitable reading strategies: Ask and answer questions; summarize; or gas (p. 19)
visualize; using a table of contents and headings; using a glossary and
bold terms
evaporate to change from a liquid state
Photo Credits:
Front cover: © iStockphoto.com/Julien Grondin; back cover, page 5: © iStockphoto.com/
to a gas state (p. 20)
Arpad Benedek; title page, page 20 (top): © iStockphoto.com/Anna Ziska; pages 3, 9,
20 (bottom): © Jupiterimages Corporation; page 4: © iStockphoto.com/Nancy Louie;
page 6 (left): © iStockphoto.com/Sreedhar Yedlapati; page 6 (right): © iStockphoto.com/ friction a force that builds up when
Diane Diederich; page 7 (left): © iStockphoto.com/Allen Johnson; page 7 (right):
© iStockphoto.com/Alexander Hafemann; pages 10, 11: © iStockphoto.com/bubaone;
page 13: © iStockphoto.com/Milorad Zaric; page 16 (top): © iStockphoto.com/Mik111;
two objects rub against each
page 16 (bottom left): © iStockphoto.com/Amanda Rohde; page 16 (bottom right):
© iStockphoto.com/Craig Veltri; page 21 (top): Sheryl Shetler/© Learning A–Z;
other (p. 5)
page 21 (bottom): © iCLIPART.com; page 22: courtesy of NASA/JPL-Caltech

Illustration Credits:
fuel any material used to
Pages 8, 12, 14, 15, 17, 18, 19: Cende Hill/© Learning A–Z
produce heat or power (p. 6)
geothermal heat heat energy from inside
Earth in the form of steam or
hot water that is sometimes
used to produce power (p. 7)

Heat Energy
Reading Levels geyser a hot spring that boils from
Learning A–Z S
© Learning A–Z
Written by Felicia Brown Lexile 760L
time to time, sending a
Correlations
column of water and steam
All rights reserved.
Fountas and Pinnell* O into the air (p. 7)
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23
*Correlated independent reading level
Most of our energy comes from the Sun.
Table of Contents
You have learned that heat is one of
many kinds of energy. It is an important
Introduction............................................... 4
form of energy that we use every day.
You have also learned that heat moves Sources of Heat Energy............................ 5
through solids, liquids, and gases by Temperature............................................. 10
passing from particle to particle. You
Heat Moves Through Things................ 13
know it moves from hotter areas to
cooler areas. We use temperature to Conduction............................................... 14
measure how hot or cold something is. Convection............................................... 17

Heat energy has many sources, including
fuels, electricity, the Sun, lightning,
geysers, and volcanoes. Without heat
energy, life on Earth would not exist!
22
Heat Energy and You.............................. 20
Glossary.................................................... 23
Index......................................................... 24
3
Heat energy cooks these marshmallows.
Introduction
Have you ever stood next to a campfire?
Have you ever watched soup boil or ice
melt? If so, you have felt or seen heat
energy at work!
There are many kinds of energy, such as
sound energy and electrical energy. But
it is heat energy that we see and feel the
most. We use it to cook our food, heat
our houses, and run our cars.
In this book, you will learn where heat
energy comes from, how it is used, how
it moves, and more.
4 21
Insulation has many tiny air pockets. Air is a good insulator.
Homes and buildings keep us cool on
hot days and warm on cold days. We
use fuel to heat our homes. We put
insulation in the walls and ceilings of
our homes. In the summer, insulation
helps keep out hot air. In the winter,
insulation helps keep in warm air.
Imagine being lost outdoors in
the woods on a cold day.
You don’t have matches to start a
fire. How would you stay warm?
and crawl under them to stay warm.
them burn, or pile up leaves and grass,
rub sticks together so that friction makes
a shelter from tree branches and brush,
Answers will vary. Possible answers: Build
 Heat Energy and You Sources of Heat Energy

Your body works Have you ever wondered about all the
to stay at a ways we get heat energy?
temperature of
One easy way to make heat is with
37°C (98.6°F). So
friction, or the rubbing together of two
when you get too
objects. Rub your hands together very
hot, you sweat. As
fast. Can you feel the heat? Rough
sweat evaporates
objects often make more friction than
Sweat keeps your body cool. from your skin, it
smooth objects, and more friction
releases heat from your body into the air.
makes more heat!
Now your skin has a lower temperature,
and your body feels
cooler. To stay
warm, you wear
thick clothes. The
clothes you wear
when it is cold
outside are good
insulators. They
stop the heat from
leaving your body. Rubbing your hands and wearing warm
Clothing keeps you warm. clothing help keep you warm.

20 5

Fuel makes cars run and
makes the electricity we use
every day.
Burning fuel is another way we make
heat. When fuels such as coal, gasoline,
and wood burn, they make heat energy.
Heat from burning gasoline is used to
make cars and trucks run.
Electricity is another way we get heat
energy. Electric furnaces heat homes
and schools. Toasters, irons, and hair
dryers are just a few other things that
use electricity to make heat.
6 19
Energy from the Sun turns to heat when it is absorbed by the
ground. Then heat from the ground warms the air above it.
Cooler air from above pushes the warm air up.
Now let’s learn how heat moves through
a gas, such as air. When the ground
warms the air above it, the air rises. The
heavier, cooler air from above sinks and
pushes the warmer air up. The warm air
becomes cool as it moves away from the
warmer ground. At the same time, the
cooler air that sank toward the ground is
getting heated. Cooler air is always
sinking and pushing up warmer air. This
rising and sinking air makes wind! The
movement of heat energy through
liquids and gases is called convection.
Now the soup at the top of the pot is
cooler. It is also heavier, so it sinks! The
cool soup pushes the lighter, hotter soup
up to the top. Now the heavier, cooler
soup takes in heat from the bottom of the
hot pot. It will rise to the top of the pot
and sink again. This is why soup churns
and boils as it is heated!
particles close
together and
moving slowly
particles far apart
and moving fast
18
Heat energy comes from natural sources,
too. Lightning is a natural source of heat
that makes air spread out very fast,
causing thunder. And did you know
that Earth has its own heat buried deep
underground, called geothermal heat? It’s
so hot under Earth’s crust that rocks melt.
Sometimes the molten rock comes out at
the surface through a volcano. In other
places, the molten rock comes close to the
surface but doesn’t come out. This melted,
underground rock can heat water trapped
in the ground. The water later shoots out
of the ground as a geyser.
Nature can melt rocks, heat water underground, and make
gorgeous displays of heat energy.
7
 Some of the heat
energy radiates away
and is absorbed by
Earth receives the atmosphere.
light energy
from the Sun.

cool soup
Land, air, and water
absorb light energy soup heats up
and warm up.
burner heats
the pan

The Sun is our most important source

of energy. Have you ever stepped from
the shade into sunlight and felt warmer?
You may think that heat comes straight
from the Sun to Earth, but it doesn’t.
Sunlight is radiant energy. Radiant
energy travels to Earth in waves of tiny
particles. When sunlight hits your skin,
it changes to heat. Your microwave oven
uses another kind of radiant energy to
cook your food.
8 17
Convection
Let’s look at how heat moves through
a liquid, such as soup. A hot pot heats
the soup at the bottom first. The heat
makes these soup particles move fast
and spread out. When the particles
spread out, the soup gets lighter! The
soup at the bottom of the pot becomes
lighter than the soup at the top.
 Heat energy always moves from warmer
A good conductor places to cooler places. When sunlight
is a material that hits the ground, it turns to heat. Then the
heat can move heat moves from the hot ground to the
through easily. cooler air above it. This blanket of air
Metal is a good around Earth keeps the planet warm.
conductor. Pots
and pans are
A metal pot is a good conductor.
made of metal Dark things take in more of the Sun’s
energy than light-colored things. That’s
because it helps food cook fast. why light-colored clothes keep you cooler
on a hot summer day.
Other solids, such as wood and plastic, So which would feel
warmer in the sun: a
are not good conductors. Heat energy white rock or a black
moves slowly in these solids. Solids that rock?

do not conduct heat

well are called
insulators. Pan
handles are
made of wood
and plastic
because they
stay cool. Insulated cups keep heat in,
while oven mitts keep heat out.

16 9
 Temperature
All matter—everything that has weight
and takes up space—is made of particles
too tiny to see. These particles are
always moving a little bit. Every object
also has heat energy, and the amount of
heat energy an object has affects how
quickly its particles move. An object
with less heat energy has particles that
move more slowly. An
object with more heat
energy has particles that
move more quickly.
The heat energy of each particle affects
how fast it moves.
10
Particles higher
up are still cool
and slow.
Particles
in the fire
get hot and
move fast.
What happens to the particles in this
metal rod when they touch fire? First,
they get heat energy from the fire. The
heat energy makes them move fast. The
hotter particles bump into other, cooler
particles in the rod. This makes the
cooler particles heat up and move faster.
The heat energy moves up the rod until
all its particles are hot. In time, the rod
will be too hot to hold!
15
 Conduction We use temperature to know how much
heat energy things have. The less heat
Heat moves most easily through solids.
energy an object has, the more slowly
This is because the particles in solids are
its particles move and the colder its
closer together than the particles in air
temperature. The more heat energy an
or liquids. Heat can quickly transfer
object has, the faster its particles move
from one particle to another when they
and the hotter its temperature. We use
are close together. Heat moves through
a thermometer to measure temperature.
solids by conduction.
Temperature is measured in degrees (°)
Gas: Particles are farthest
apart. Heat moves
according to either the Celsius (C) or
slowest through a gas.
Fahrenheit (F) scale.

Thermometer comes from two words.

Liquid: Particles
are closer Thermo means “heat.” Meter means
together than in a “an object used to measure.” So a
gas. Heat moves thermometer is an object used to
more quickly
through a liquid. measure how hot something is.

Solid: Particles are

closest together and in
a pattern. Heat moves
easily through particles. When particles have more heat,
they move faster.

14 11

Water freezes at 0°C (32°F), and it boils at 100°C (212°F).
A thermometer can tell you how hot or cold the water is.
Because boiling water has so much heat
energy, the tiny particles in the water
move very fast. The temperature of
boiling water is 100°C (212°F).
Ice, or frozen water, has so little heat
energy that the tiny particles in it move
very slowly. The temperature of frozen
water is 0°C (32°F).
12
Heat Moves Through Things
You know that the temperature of an
object can change. The water that was
boiling at 100°C (212°F) freezes solid
if you leave it in the freezer long enough.
And if you leave an ice cube out on a
plate, it will melt. Other objects change
temperature, too. Pizza that’s hot from the
oven will get cold over time. The water
and pizza change temperature because
heat energy moves through them.
Heat energy moves through solids
(such as pizza) as well as liquids and
gases (such as water and air). But it
moves differently through solids than
it moves through liquids and gases.
Heat moves through particles in pizza. A hot piece of pizza
cools down over time.
13