Our Sun and Heat Transfer Basics: Heat It Up!
Through a teacher demonstration using water, heat and food coloring, students see how convection moves the energy of the Sun from its core outwards. Students learn about the three different modes of heat transfer—convection, conduction, radiation—and how they are related to the Sun and life on our planet. Includes a student worksheet for data collection and graphing.
Water on the surface of a swimming pool is warmer than water in the deep parts of the pool because of convection.Copyright 2004 Microsoft Corporation, One Microsoft Way, Redmond, WA 98052-6399 USA. All rights reserved.
Engineers design measuring devices to record changes in density and temperature on the Sun. By observing the Sun we can learn about what is happening under the surface and how heat is moving through the Sun. Heat transfer also occurs on Earth and engineers need to understand the different modes in order to build devices and structures that do not overheat or get too cold.
After this activity, students should be able to:
- Define the three different modes of heat transfer.
- Explain how heat gets from the Sun to Earth.
- Give one example of why engineers need to understand heat transfer.