The big idea driving this unit
Picture packing a cooler for a beach trip: ice, drinks, and a foam lid all interact through heat flow. By the end of this unit you'll understand the physics well enough to explain why the cooler keeps things cold — and even design and test your own insulated container or solar cooker.
Chapters in this unit
- 1 Energy Transfer and TemperatureWhen you touch a metal doorknob and a wooden door on the same cold morning, the doorknob feels colder — even though they're the same temperature. What's actually going on, and how is that different from temperature itself?
- 2 Changes in Energy at the Molecular LevelIf you could shrink down small enough to ride on a water molecule, what would you feel happening as ice melts into water, and then as that water heats up until it boils away as steam?
- 3 Phase Changes and Energy TransferYou pull an ice pop from the freezer and set it on a plate. Ten minutes later, it's a sticky puddle. Where did all that thermal energy come from, and why does the temperature of the melting ice pop stay put at 0°C the whole time it's melting?