Heat Transfer

There are three types of heat transfer: conduction, convection, and radiation. Take a look at the picture of a person trying to cook pizza over a fire. In order to successfully cook the pizza, the person needs radiation from the fire. Radiation heat is like the heat from a fire or the heat you feel from the sun. Radiation is heat waves. You can't actually see them but you can feel them. Then, there is conduction. Conduction is when you touch something and you can feel the heat directly from the object. For example, if you touch a hot plate you can feel the heat from it and you try to take your finger away as fast as you can, before you get burned! Finally, there is convection. Convection is when heat is transfered through liquids or gases. It's makes the wax inside a lava lamp move. It is also the steam that comes up from a pot of boiling water. But how does all this happen? It is all about the atoms and molecules.