Ryan+S

Thermal Energy
By: Ryan Scott

Thermal energy is the energy that is formed from moving atoms/molecules. The heat that is radiated is all dependent on how fast the molecules are moving. Some move at faster speeds, others move at slower speeds. The faster the molecules the warmer the object; the slower the molecules the less radiation of heat. Temperature is the measurement of the thermal energy in an object. It measures the amount of kinetic energy in the moving molecules of that object.

An example of thermal energy is a wind turbine. They are able to convert the kinetic energy from the wind into energy to use as electricity. They are able to use the wind, and they have a little charger in the back, and used it to power different things. Some of the things it can power include traffic lights, batteries, and many other things. These wind turbines are very modern and are an approach to save energy. There are different types of turbines designed for different levels of turbulence and wind.

This is a modern wind turbine located in Germany. It helps create electricity converting the kinetic energy from the wind turbine to electricity.

These are the different components to the wind turbine that help convert the wind to electricity.

This is a wind turbine. It has thermal energy because it converts the kinetic energy from the wind to create energy.

The purpose of this experiment was to measure how fast the hand-warmer heated up without shaking it. Each minute for 15 minutes a thermometer was placed inside the folded hand-warmer (was very packed together and didn’t shake as much) to measure the heat which was increasing quickly. At first it was about room temperature starting at 22 degrees Celsius, increasing by two degrees every minute, until it hit about thirty. At around thirty degrees it started to get continually warmer making seem impossible to hold it for more than 7 seconds! When it finally got to thirty degrees the hand-warmer started to heat up by one degree per minute, then continuing at thirty-four degrees, by one degree every two minutes. By the end of the experiment the hand-warmer was very warm to the touch and was hard to hold for more than a few minutes. If the experiment were to have been done again, I would try to see what happens if the hand-warmer was not folded to keep it solid and hold the thermometer!