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Heat Conduction Worksheet
By the end you will: compare good and poor conductors of heat and use Fourier's law to find the rate of heat flow.
A. Explore with the simulation
Heat two rods at a time. After about 2 minutes of rod time, how many wax beads have melted on each?
Rod Conductivity k (W/m·K) Beads melted after 2 min Copper 400 Aluminium 237 Iron 80 Steel 16 Glass 1 Wood 0.12 Which beads melt first on each rod: near the flame or far from it? Why?
Turn the flame off. What happens to the rods over time?
B. Calculate
Heat flow per second = k A ΔT ÷ L. Find it for an aluminium rod (k = 237) 0.5 m long, area 2 cm², ends at 100 °C and 20 °C.
A glass window 4 mm thick has an area of 1 m². Inside is 25 °C and outside 5 °C. Find the heat loss per second (k = 1).
C. Think it through
Why are cooking pots made of metal but their handles of wood or plastic?
Answer key (for teachers and parents)
- Roughly: copper 5, aluminium 5, iron 2, steel 1, glass 0, wood 0. Metals conduct heat far better than glass and wood.
- Near the flame. Heat travels along the rod from particle to particle, so the hot end warms first.
- They cool down towards room temperature (25 °C), losing heat to the air.
- 237 × 0.0002 × 80 ÷ 0.5 ≈ 7.6 W.
- 1 × 1 × 20 ÷ 0.004 = 5,000 W.
- Metal conducts heat quickly to the food; wood and plastic are poor conductors, so the handle stays cool enough to hold.
Free to print and share for teaching. Made with the interactive simulation at jugnix.com/simulations/heat-conduction.