What Is Conduction? — Passage
Have you ever touched a metal doorknob on a cold day and felt the chill? Or grabbed a metal spoon from a hot pot and uickly pulled your hand away? That feeling comes from conduction—the way heat moves through solids.
Conduction happens when heat passes from one particle to another. In solids, the particles are packed very close together. When one particle gets warmer, it starts to move faster. It bumps into the particles next to it, passing the heat along. This is how the heat moves through the material.
Metals are some of the best conductors of heat. That’s why pots and pans are made of metal—they heat up uickly and cook food evenly. Other materials, like wood or plastic, are poor conductors. They do not let heat move through them easily. These materials are called insulators.
Think about cooking. If you stir soup with a metal spoon, the spoon gets hot because heat from the soup travels through the spoon to your hand. But if you use a wooden spoon, it stays cool because wood doesn’t conduct heat well.
Conduction is important in many parts of our lives. Engineers think about conduction when they design buildings, cars, and even space rockets! They choose the right materials to either move heat around or stop it from moving.
Fun Fact: Some animals, like polar bears, have thick fur that acts like an insulator. This helps them keep their body heat from escaping into the cold air!
What is the main idea of the passage?
How to cook food using metal spoonsWhat conduction is and how it worksWhy polar bears are good swimmersHow to build a space rocketWhat is conduction?
Heat moving through liquidsHeat passing through solids by particle collisionsHeat traveling through air in wavesHeat created by the SunWhich material is a good conductor of heat?
PlasticWoodMetalCottonWhat word describes a material that does NOT let heat move easily?
ConductorInsulatorReactorEvaporatorWhy does a wooden spoon stay cool when stirring hot soup?
Wood is a good conductorWood is a good insulatorSoup cools it downThe handle is too short to get hotAccording to the passage, why do engineers think about conduction?
To build taller buildingsTo help materials change colorTo control how heat moves in designsTo make things floatWhat does the word particles mean in the passage?
Small pieces that make up materialsBig heavy machinesFluffy pieces of furHot air balloonsWhat is a fun fact mentioned in the passage?
Polar bears use conduction to swimPolar bears’ fur works like an insulatorPolar bears cook with metal spoonsPolar bears use metal to stay warmRelated Content
