Heat energy possesses the ability to be transferred from one object to another through three main ways. One being conduction, which is the direct heat transfer between atom collision, where heat spreads through vibrating particles hitting slower-moving particles, making them speed up and ultimately warm up. Another way for heat transfer to occur is convection, which is a cycle that takes place when a fluid is heated, where molecules that get heated up become less dense and rise, and eventually it grows cold and sinks when it is away from the heat source. The cycle repeats. The last of one of the main transferences of heat is radiation. Radiation can be defined as the transmission of energy from a body in the form of waves or particles (Howard, 2018).
When light rays hit a certain object, either reflection, transmission or absorption of light waves occur because the frequencies of the light waves does not match the one’s within the objects. When light waves of these frequencies strike an object, the electrons in the atoms of the item begins vibrating. If it is not in resonance, the energy is reemitted as a light wave. Transmission occurs if the object is transparent, with the vibrations of the electrons passing on to neighbouring atoms and reemitted on the opposite side of the object. Reflection occurs when the object is opaque, and the energy is reemitted as a reflected light wave. Absorption occurs when electrons of atoms have a natural frequency at which they will vibrate, so when a light wave with the same natural frequency strikes an atom, the energy of the light wave will be absorbed and transformed into a vibrating motion. As they are vibrating, they will collide with neighbouring atoms and spread heat energy (Physicsclassroom.com, 2018).
The term thermal insulation is used to describe the process that is used to keep something at a stable temperature (Misapor.ch, 2018). The opposite is thermal conduction which is when the tow objects are touching, and the heat is transferred. Snell’s law concerns refraction of light or waves, stating that when light passes through different materials, the incidence angle and refraction angle is not changed, but the same (Kiddle, 2018). Frequency is the number of occurrences of a repeating even per a certain period that can be of any time unit. Along with it, wavelengths is the distance between the crests of a wave.
The molecules within a metal is more compacted so when the molecules vibrate and collide into neighbouring atoms, they begin to vibrate and possess heat energy. However, in a fluid, the particles are more spread apart and it therefore conducts slowly. The energy from the sun is called Radiant energy, which is simply energy possessed by vibrating particles. Vibrating particles in the sun create waves that travel through space and time. These waves created by vibrating particles are called electromagnetic waves which can travel through vacuums. The electromagnetic waves are then absorbed by the atmosphere, hydrosphere, and the lithosphere. The heat energy from the sun arrives in light form, with the wavelengths carrying thermal radiation as the light rays are which is the heat we feel. These wavelengths are extremely fast and are high energy waves.
