Sunlight

Heat transfer is a principal of thermal engineering (the heating or cooling of a process) that is specialized in the exchange of thermal energy (heat energy) from one physical system to another. There are many instances where we can see heat transfer. Some of these mechanisms includes heat conduction, convection, thermal radiation, and phase change transfer. In all these cases, energy in the form of heat is being transferred from a warmer object to one that is cooler. Since this energy transfer follows the law of conservation of momentum which says that energy cannot be created nor destroyed, we know that if one object is gaining heat energy, the other object is losing it.

The specific instance I’m using is thermal radiation. As we know from earlier classes and other research we have done, thermal radiation is heat generated by matter because of the charged particles in that matter, object with fast moving particles have more heat. Sunlight is an example of when heat transfer occurs. The electromagnetic waves (energy traveling through space) also known as radiation encounter an object. The waves will then transfer the heat to that object. A specific example of this is when sunlight comes in contact with a house. When the electromagnetic waves come in contact with the house the temperature inside that house goes up. The energy coming from the heat waves is converted in to kinetic energy (the energy something has because of its motion) in the particles of the object it is heating. This is why when you leave something out in the sun for too long, its internal temperature will go up. One way that the heat energy from the sun affects our ecological economy is that plants need heat energy to grow and survive. Though they do not need as much heat energy as light energy, the heat energy is still important to make the enzymes work.

Scholarly articles

Mark Bishop (Lead Author);Tom Lawrence (Topic Editor) "Heat transfer". In: Encyclopedia of Earth. Eds. Cutler J. Cleveland (Washington, D.C.: Environmental Information Coalition, National Council for Science and the Environment). [First published in the Encyclopedia of Earth June 24, 2008; Last revised Date June 24, 2008; Retrieved November 6, 2011 <http://www.eoearth.org/article/Heat_transfer>

Luebbers, Ralph H. "Heat Transfer." Encyclopedia of Earth. ©McGraw-Hill Companies, 2008. Web. 06 Nov. 2011. .