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Explore heat transfer and know the difference between heat and temperature
For Students
heat summary
Quizzes
Electric power lines against sunset (grid, power, wires, electrical, electricity)
Energy & Fossil Fuels
Italian physicist Guglielmo Marconi at work in the wireless room of his yacht Electra, c. 1920.
All About Physics Quiz
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Muscle injury. Man with sprain thigh muscles. Athlete in sports shorts clutching his thigh muscles after pulling or straining them while jogging on the beach.
Why Does Heat Relax Your Muscles?
Discover
Solar Eclipse, Eclipse, Solar Flare, Outer Space, Astronomy
What Causes Lunar and Solar Eclipses?
Albert Einstein in Washington, D.C. c. 1921-1923. Physicist
The Solar Eclipse That Made Albert Einstein a Science Celebrity
Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519), Italian Renaissance painter from Florence. Engraving by Cosomo Colombini (d. 1812) after a Leonardo self portrait. Ca. 1500.
10 Famous Artworks by Leonardo da Vinci
The Battle of New Orleans, by E. Percy Moran, c. 1910. Andrew Jackson, War of 1812.
26 Decade-Defining Events in U.S. History
General Pershing's troops moving into Mexico in 1917 during World War I.
Timeline of World War I
Adolf Hitler (Nazi, nazism, German leader).
9 Things You Might Not Know About Adolf Hitler
Solar eclipse of the sun.
The Sun Was Eaten: 6 Ways Cultures Have Explained Eclipses
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Last Updated: • Article History
Category: Science & Tech
Key People:
Antoine Lavoisier
William Thomson, Baron Kelvin
Henry Cavendish
Sir Benjamin Thompson, count von Rumford
James Prescott Joule
Related Topics:
latent heat
enthalpy
thermal conduction
heat capacity
caloric theory
See all related content →

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heat, energy that is transferred from one body to another as the result of a difference in temperature. If two bodies at different temperatures are brought together, energy is transferred—i.e., heat flows—from the hotter body to the colder. The effect of this transfer of energy usually, but not always, is an increase in the temperature of the colder body and a decrease in the temperature of the hotter body. A substance may absorb heat without an increase in temperature by changing from one physical state (or phase) to another, as from a solid to a liquid (melting), from a solid ...(100 of 1065 words)

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