Wouldn't it be great if you owned a telescope that was so powerful you could zoom right in to look at atoms and molecules. You would be able to see the atoms and molecules "jiggling" about. This "jiggling" motion of the atoms is HEAT. If you rub your hands together, they got warm. Keep rubbing them and they get even hotter. That's is because the rubbing motion EXCITES the atoms in your hands, causing electrons to "jump" to a higher energy orbital, only to fall back down and release a PHOTON! PHOTONS are HEAT as well as LIGHT. The heat released by you is INFRA-RED - and that's why you can't SEE it.
Temperature is fundamentally just a measure of how FAST the atoms are JIGGLING.
No comments:
Post a Comment