Revision Notes
Class-7 Science
Chapter 4 – Heat
Heat:
● We know that many things around us can be hot or cold, like tea or boiling
water is hot, and ice or ice cream is cold.
● This is not just a sensation but a form of energy called heat energy. Heat
can be termed as an energy which makes you feel hot or warm or we can
say scientifically that it is form of energy where the transfer of energy
from a hot to a cooler object takes place.
● The differentiation of hot and cold comes from the difference in their
temperatures. Hence temperature is a measure of degree of hotness of an
object.
Measuring temperature:
● The device that measures the temperature is known as thermometer.
There are various kinds of thermometers depending on the purpose or
usage of the same.
● The various kinds of thermometers are as follows:
1) Clinical thermometer:
● This type of thermometer is used to measure the body temperature
only and is used in hospitals by doctors and also at home.
● A clinical thermometer generally consists of long narrow glass tube
with a bulb at one end that contains mercury. A thread of shining
mercury is seen along the scale indicated on the thermometer, which
helps in taking the reading.
● The scale used in India is the Celsius scale and is indicated by the
symbol C .
● The normal human body temperature is 37 C , and so the range of
this thermometer is from 35 C to 42 C . To take the reading, the
bulb of the thermometer is kept below the tongue for a minute.
● Now a days due to the toxic nature of mercury and issues of the
thermometer being broken and spilling it, digital thermometers are
in use which are safe and do not contain mercury.
2) Maximum-minimum thermometers:
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● These are used to measure the maximum and minimum temperatures
of a day.
● They are U-shaped parallel glass tube. It is used to record the
temperatures at a place.
3) Laboratory Thermometer:
● This thermometer is used to measure the temperature of all objects
other than a human body.
● It consists of a long glass tube without a kink and has a bulb
containing mercury at the end of the tube.
● This is generally used in laboratories for checking the boiling
points, freezing points etc. Hence the range of this thermometer is
from 10 C to 110 C .
Transfer of heat:
● We know that heat is the transfer of energy from a hotter object to a cooler
object, like if a spoon is left in a bowl of hot soup, then the heat from the
soup is transferred to the spoon and it becomes hot.
● This transfer of heat can occur by different ways. They are:
1) Conduction:
● This is a process of heat transfer where the heat is transferred from
the hot part to the cold part of the object. Example - The handle
of a pan gets hot when the pan becomes hot and so a wooden or
plastic handle is made for them.
● The substances that allow the heat to pass through them are termed
as conductors. Example - iron, copper, etc.
● The substance that do not allow the heat to transfer through them are
called as insulators or poor conductors. Example - wood, plastic.
2) Convection:
● This is the form of heat transfer in liquids and gases where the
heat is transferred by the movement of the heated molecules within
them. Example - boiling of water.
● The molecules of the fluid or gas near the source of heat becomes
hot and rises up and this is replaced by the colder molecules in the
fluid or air. They also get heated up and rise till the entire fluid or air
is heated.
● This is the principle behind the interesting feature in the coastal areas
called the sea and land breeze.
●
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a) Sea Breeze:
● In the coastal regions, the land gets heated up faster during the
day time. And as the land gets hotter, the hot air rises up.
● At that time the cool air from the sea blows in to take its place
and the warm air from the land moves to the sea to complete
the cycle. This cool breeze flowing from the sea to the land is
termed as the sea breeze.
b) Land Breeze:
● The opposite of this happens at night. The land cools faster
than the water at night, so the cool air moves towards the sea
to replace the warm air of the sea.
● The cool air moving from the land towards the sea is termed
as land breeze.
3) Radiation:
● This is the form of heat transfer where a medium like air or liquid
is not required to transfer the heat energy. Example - Heat from
the sun, a hot utensil becomes cool after some time by transfer of
heat to surroundings this way.
● All the hot bodies are capable of radiating heat.
Absorption of heat:
● The heat that is radiated by the objects is reflected, absorbed.
● The heat increases the temperature of the object.
● Dark-colours are capable of absorbing heat. So, we feel comfortable
wearing them in winters and we use a black umbrella to go out in sun.
● Light colours reflect heat and so we feel comfortable wearing them in
summers.
● We use woollen clothes in winters. Though wool is a poor conductor of
heat, but it can trap air [again a bad conductor of heat] in between the fibres
which does not allow the heat from the body to escape into the
surroundings and thus keeping us warm.
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