Difference between Heat and TemperatureWe often talk about heat and temperature in our day to day life while talking about the weather, hot metallic substance, tea, coffee, fever etc. The concept of heat and temperature are somewhat related but not alike. There is a fine line between heat and temperature. Let us see how heat differs from temperature! Heat:Heat is a type of energy; we can call it heat energy. It is the total amount of kinetic and potential energy possessed by the molecules of an object. It is basically the transfer of thermal energy between objects due to the difference in temperature. In other words, heat measures how thermal energy moves from one object to another object, e.g. from a hotter object to a colder object. In other words, the transfer of heat between two objects due to the difference in the temperature is called heat. An object which is very hot has a lot of heat energy and when it gets cold it loses most of the heat energy or it has less heat energy. The hotter object losses heat or heat energy and colder object gains the heat or heat energy. An object can gain or lose heat but it cannot have heat. It is not a property possessed by an object or system. The transfer of heat energy can occur in three ways by conduction, convection or radiation. The standard unit of heat in the International System of Units (SI) is the joule (J). Temperature:Temperature is a measure of the hotness or coldness of an object. In other words, it is a measure of the average kinetic energy (heat or heat energy) of the particles of an object. It depends on the kinetic energy of the molecules which are in constant motion. The faster the molecules of an object move, the more kinetic energy they have. The more kinetic energy the particles of an object have, the higher is the temperature. Temperature is measured in various scales such as Kelvin, Celsius and Fahrenheit. Based on the above information, some of the key differences between heat and temperature are as follows:
Next TopicDifference between
|