Education: Activities & Documents
Heat Flow and Latent Heat
When an object gains heat, two things can happen: the temperature of the object can rise, or the object can change its state without a measurable change in temperature (e.g., ice melting into water). Most materials have two state transitions: from solid to liquid and from liquid to gas. The heat needed to change the state of a material is called latent heat of fusion (for changing from solid to liquid) and latent heat of vaporization (for changing from liquid to gas). Latent heats of fusion and vaporization for water are high and have many important consequences for Earth's climate. Credit: Karp-Boss, L., E. Boss, H. Weller, J. Loftin, and J. Albright (2009). Teaching Physical Concepts in Oceanography: An Inquiry Based Approach. Oceanography 22(3), supplement, 48 pp.
teaching_phys_concepts_hi.pdf (27.0 MB)