Oct./Nov.

2013 Teacher's Guide for

Why Cold Doesn’t Exist

Table of Contents

About the Guide 2

Student Questions 3
Answers to Student Questions 4
Anticipation Guide 5
Reading Strategies 6
Background Information 8
Connections to Chemistry Concepts 20
Possible Student Misconceptions 20
In-class Activities 21
Out-of-class Activities and Projects 22
References 22
Web Sites for Additional Information 23
About the Guide
Teacher’s Guide editors William Bleam, Donald McKinney, Ronald Tempest, and Erica K.
Jacobsen created the Teacher’s Guide article material. E-mail: bbleam@verizon.net

Susan Cooper prepared the anticipation and reading guides.

Patrice Pages, ChemMatters editor, coordinated production and prepared the Microsoft Word
and PDF versions of the Teacher’s Guide. E-mail: chemmatters@acs.org

Articles from past issues of ChemMatters can be accessed from a CD that is available from the
American Chemical Society for $30. The CD contains all ChemMatters issues from February
1983 to April 2008.

The ChemMatters CD includes an Index that covers all issues from February 1983 to April
2008.

The ChemMatters CD can be purchased by calling 1-800-227-5558.

Purchase information can be found online at www.acs.org/chemmatters

2
Student Questions
1. What happens when an ice cube is added to a soft drink?
2. What is the rule about how energy is transferred between two objects that are in
contact?
3. (T-F / Explain) All particles of a substance have the same kinetic energy.
4. What is the definition of temperature?
5. Name the three kinds of motion that a particle can have.
6. Describe the results of collisions between faster-moving particles and slower-
moving particles.
7. What term is applied to the situation in which energy has been transferred from
faster particles to slower ones and as a result the particles end up traveling at the same
speed?
8. Explain why evaporation of a liquid from our skin makes us feel cooler.

3
Answers to Student Questions
1. What happens when an ice cube is added to a soft drink?
When an ice cube is added to a soft drink, heat is transferred from the soft drink to the ice
cube and so the soft drink gets colder.
2. What is the rule about how energy is transferred between two
objects that are in contact?
As the article states, energy is always transferred from the object with the higher
temperature to the object with the lower temperature.
3. (T-F / Explain) All particles of a substance have the same kinetic
energy.
The statement is false; all particles of one substance do NOT have the same kinetic energy.
In a given substance, the particles are all moving but at difference velocities. Therefore, the
particles have a range of kinetic energies, since kinetic energy varies with the square of the
velocity.
4. What is the definition of temperature?
Temperature is a measure of the average kinetic energy of the particles in a substance.
Since the particles have a range of kinetic energies, the best we can do is determine an
average.
5. Name the three kinds of motion a particle can have.
The three types of motion of a particle are translational, vibrational and rotational. “They can
vibrate (wiggle about a fixed position), translate (move from one location to another), or
rotate (spin around).”
6. Describe the results of collisions between faster-moving particles
and slower-moving particles.
When faster-moving particles collide with slower-moving particles, the latter speed up and
the former slow down. The net effect is that energy is transferred from faster-moving
particles to slower ones. We call this transferred energy “heat”. The transfer continues until
the two particles are traveling at the same speed.
7. What term is applied to the situation in which energy has been
transferred from faster particles to slower ones and as a result the particles end up
traveling at the same speed?
The condition in which all particles are traveling at the same speed is known as thermal
equilibrium.
8. Explain why evaporation of a liquid from our skin makes us feel
cooler.
Evaporation occurs when liquid molecules leave the liquid state to become vapor. Only the
fastest molecules have enough energy to leave and become vapor. This leaves the
remaining molecules moving more slowly than your skin, so heat is transferred from your
skin to the remaining liquid. This results in your skin feeling cooler, since the molecules on
your skin are now traveling more slowly than they were before the liquid evaporated.

4
Anticipation Guide
Anticipation guides help engage students by activating prior knowledge and stimulating student
interest before reading. If class time permits, discuss students’ responses to each statement
before reading each article. As they read, students should look for evidence supporting or
refuting their initial responses.

Directions: Before reading, in the first column, write “A” or “D,” indicating your agreement or
disagreement with each statement. As you read, compare your opinions with information from
the article. In the space under each statement, cite information from the article that supports or
refutes your original ideas.

Me Text Statement
1. Energy can be transferred from a colder to a hotter body.

2. At a given temperature, all of the particles in a liquid have the same kinetic
energy.

3. In a sample of ice in a soft drink, the water molecules in both the ice and soft
drink have the same kind of kinetic energy.

4. Energy transfer is called heat.

5. At thermal equilibrium, the number of molecular collisions resulting in

energy gain is the same as the number of molecular collisions resulting in
energy loss.

6. When water evaporates from your finger, the water molecules with a lower
average kinetic energy are left behind, so your finger feels cooler.

7. The intermolecular forces between molecules of oil are less than the
intermolecular forces between molecules of water.

8. Cold is an adjective used to describe a lack of heat.

5
Reading Strategies
These matrices and organizers are provided to help students locate and analyze information from
the articles. Student understanding will be enhanced when they explore and evaluate the
information themselves, with input from the teacher if students are struggling. Encourage
students to use their own words and avoid copying entire sentences from the articles. The use of
bullets helps them do this. If you use these reading strategies to evaluate student performance,
you may want to develop a grading rubric such as the one below.

Score Description Evidence

Complete; details provided; demonstrates deep
4 Excellent
understanding.
Complete; few details provided; demonstrates
3 Good
some understanding.
Incomplete; few details provided; some
2 Fair
misconceptions evident.
Very incomplete; no details provided; many
1 Poor
misconceptions evident.
Not So incomplete that no judgment can be made
0
acceptable about student understanding

Teaching Strategies:

1. Links to Common Core Standards for writing: Ask students to debate one of the
controversial topics from this issue in an essay or class discussion, providing evidence
from the article or other references to support their position.

2. Vocabulary that is reinforced in this issue:

a. Surface area
b. Kinetic energy
c. Amino acid
d. Protein
e. Binding energy

3. To help students engage with the text, ask students what questions they still have about
the articles. The articles about sports supplements and fracking, in particular, may spark
questions and even debate among students.

6
Directions: As you read the article, use your own words to describe or draw the molecular
motion for each process listed in the chart.

Process Description

Vibrational kinetic
energy

Translational kinetic
energy

Rotational kinetic
energy

Energy transfer

Thermal equilibrium

Evaporation

Intermolecular force
of attraction

7
Background Information
(teacher information)
More on the motion of particles

One important idea in the article is that all particles are in motion and, therefore, have
thermal energy. In order to understand this concept, students should first understand the Kinetic
Molecular Model (KMM). In many chemistry textbooks this is presented in a chapter on gases
and is called the Kinetic Theory of Gases. However, the model can be applied to solids and
liquids as well as gases. There are multiple versions of KMM in circulation, each with small
variations, but the essential components are these:
1. All matter can be thought of as a collection of discrete particles.
2. Each particle is too small to be seen individually.
3. There are spaces between the particles.
4. The particles are in constant, random motion.
5. There are forces of attraction between the particles.

In any chemistry course students

should have a mental model of matter that
corresponds to these key components. If you
lead students to make the tentative assumption
that all matter is particulate there are activities
you can do to reinforce that basic assumption
—that is, provide evidence for the concept.
Visuals like the one at right may help students
to think about solids, liquids and gases as
particulate. http://scienceportfolio1p1.wikispaces.com/Term+2

With that fundamental idea in mind you can have students make a series of observations
to develop the remaining KMM ideas. For example, if you dissolve salt in water the salt
disappears. But if you evaporate the water the salt remains, indicating that it was there all along.
You can lead students to the idea that the particles making up the visible granular salt
separated into individual particles that were invisible. To develop the idea that here are spaces
between the particles you might consider doing the “shrinking liquids” activity (see “In-class
Activitie”, #2).

Key to this article is the particle motion component of the model. You can refer to the
classic Brownian motion experiment (see “In-class Activities”, #5), and the work that Einstein did
to confirm the motion of molecules. It is likely that background on molecular motion can be
found in chemistry textbooks under topics like reaction mechanisms, gas laws, change of phase
and other topics. The fact that particles (atoms and molecules) are in motion means that the
particles collide with each other (and in the case of liquids and gases with the walls of their
container). As the article describes, these collisions change the direction and velocity of
particles. It is also important to note that the collisions are described as being “perfectly elastic.”
That is, when the collisions occur no energy is lost. As a side note in the context of this
Teacher’s Guide—collisions between particles is an important concept for students to have in
order to understand how chemical reactions occur.

8
 The article notes that the motion of the particles means that each particle has its own
kinetic energy and that some particles are moving faster or slower than others. Since it is not
possible to measure the kinetic energy of individual particles, we use a thermometer to measure
the average kinetic energy of the particles in a substance. See “More on temperature” below.

The article also describes the change of phase for a melting ice cube. In order to fully
understand change of phase, students must also know that there are intermolecular forces of
attraction between particles—hydrogen bonds and van der Waals forces. And these forces
constrain the motion of particles to varying degrees depending on whether the substance is a
solid, liquid or gas. And further, energy (perhaps in the form of heat) is required to overcome the
intermolecular forces. Further discussion of these ideas will appear in later sections of this
Teacher’s Guide.

More on heat

Your students should know the law of Conservation of Energy, which says that the total
amount of energy in the universe is constant. That is, energy cannot be created or destroyed.
Energy can, however, be transferred from one substance (or system) to another, or it can
change form. Examples of energy transformations include a light bulb (electricity to light and
heat), an exothermic chemical reaction like combustion (chemical potential to heat), expansion
of gases according to Charles’ Law (heat to work) and many others. For the purposes of this
article and Teacher’s Guide the emphasis will be on energy transfer between substances.

Heat flow at a macroscopic level is a well-defined phenomenon which can be described

by quantitative laws. The First Law of Thermodynamics is simply the Law of Conservation of
Energy applied to heat. It says that the change in internal energy of a system is equal to the
heat added to a system minus the work done by the system. The equation can be expressed:
ΔU = Q + W
where U is internal energy,
Q is heat added to or removed from the system and
W is work done on or by the system.
Note that ΔU can be expressed as Energy(final) – Energy(initial), a form more familiar to chemists.
The law is easiest to see if there is no work done on or by the system. In that case the change
in internal energy is equal to the heat flow, the situation described in the article. Also note that in
the examples of heat flow described in the article, no chemical changes take place. The ideas
described here, however, do relate to chemical changes. Enthalpy, entropy, Hess’s Law, bond
energies and calorimetry are all connected to the First Law. For a thorough discussion of these
issues, see http://www.chem1.com/acad/webtext/energetics/.

So we know from the First Law that as the internal energies of substances change, heat
flows. But what directs the flow? The Second law of Thermodynamics tells us. It says that heat
always flows from the substance with the higher temperature to the substance with the lower
temperature and never the other way around. This is the central idea of the article. The energy
flow between two substances with different temperatures is called heat and we can predict its
flow by looking at the temperatures. Follow this concept to its logical conclusion to get the idea
stated in the article’s title: there is no physical entity defined as cold.

The Second Law has a second consequence. It suggests that we cannot remove all of
the internal energy from a given substance at a given temperature. Some of it will be “lost” as a
result of heat flow between the substance and its surroundings. For example, if we try to remove

9
all the internal energy from 1.0 liter of water we will see that while we are conducting the
experiment some of the heat we wish to capture will inevitably flow to the water’s container and,
therefore, not be available for our use. So, in fact, no heat flow is 100 per cent efficient.

A consequence of this concept is that the system in our example becomes more
disordered. That is, the entropy (S) of the system (in this case the water and its container)
increases. So the Second Law tells us something about entropy in addition to heat flow. NASA
provides some additional details:

We can imagine thermodynamic processes which conserve energy but which

never occur in nature. For example, if we bring a hot object into contact with a cold
object, we observe that the hot object cools down and the cold object heats up until an
equilibrium is reached. The transfer of heat goes from the hot object to the cold object.
We can imagine a system, however, in which the heat is instead transferred from the cold
object to the hot object, and such a system does not violate the first law of
thermodynamics. The cold object gets colder and the hot object gets hotter, but energy is
conserved. Obviously we don't encounter such a system in nature and to explain this and
similar observations, thermodynamicists proposed a second law of thermodynamics.
Clasius [sic], Kelvin, and Carnot proposed various forms of the second law to describe
the particular physics problem that each was studying. The description of the second law
stated on this slide was taken from Halliday and Resnick's textbook, "Physics". It begins
with the definition of a new state variable called entropy. Entropy has a variety of physical
interpretations, including the statistical disorder of the system, but for our purposes, let us
consider entropy to be just another property of the system, like enthalpy or temperature.

The second law states that there exists a useful state variable called entropy S.
The change in entropy delta S is equal to the heat transfer delta Q divided by the
temperature T.

ΔS = ΔQ/T

For a given physical process, the combined entropy of the system and the
environment remains a constant if the process can be reversed. If we denote the initial
and final states of the system by "i" and "f":

Sf = Si (reversible process)

An example of a reversible process is ideally forcing a flow through a

constricted pipe. Ideal means no boundary layer losses. As the flow moves through the
constriction, the pressure, temperature and velocity change, but these variables return to
their original values downstream of the constriction. The state of the gas returns to its
original conditions and the change of entropy of the system is zero. Engineers call such a
process an isentropic process. Isentropic means constant entropy.

The second law states that if the physical process is irreversible, the combined
entropy of the system and the environment must increase. The final entropy must be
greater than the initial entropy for an irreversible process:

Sf > Si (irreversible process)

An example of an irreversible process is the problem discussed in the second

paragraph. A hot object is put in contact with a cold object. Eventually, they both achieve
the same equilibrium temperature. If we then separate the objects they remain at the

10
 equilibrium temperature and do not naturally return to their original temperatures. The
process of bringing them to the same temperature is irreversible.
(http://www.grc.nasa.gov/WWW/k-12/airplane/thermo2.html)

Observing heat flow at the macroscopic level, then, we see that ideally the energy is
conserved and that heat always flows from higher temperature to lower temperature. In other
words, cooling down and warming up occur via the same mechanism—heat transfer from a
higher temperature to a lower temperature. The substance with the initial higher temperature
cools down and the substance with the initial lower temperature warms up. The end result of
heat flow is thermal equilibrium with both substances at the same temperature. At this point
there will not be any heat flow between them. If we measured the change in temperatures
during the heat flow, we would see temperatures looking something like this:

(http://www.physicsclassroom.com/class/thermalP/u18l1d.cfm)

Both substances in the example above will have the same temperature at the end of the
process, since they are at thermal equilibrium.

You may wish to note to your students that for simple heat transfer examples we can
calculate the amount of heat that flows in or out of a substance using an equation that appears
in most high school chemistry textbooks:
Q=CpmΔt
Where Q = heat transfer,
Cp = the specific heat of the substance,
m = the mass of the substance and
Δt = change in temperature.

You may have to remind students that specific heat is defined to be the heat required to raise the
temperature of one gram of substance 1oC and that the units are kJ/(g x oC).

More on the history of heat

Science did not always believe that heat is related to molecular motion. The ancients had their
views on heat, primarily as it related to fire. Fire was, of course, one of the Greek elements. The Greek
philosopher Heraclitus suggested that, of the four elements, fire was the controlling element since it
caused changes to occur in the others. Other ancients attributed heat to the heart, the sun, friction and
general motion. When Joseph Black discovered via experimentation that heat could melt ice without
changing its temperature, the notions of heat and temperature were first distinguished. Newcomen and
Watt established a relationship between heat and work and in the 1600s Johann Becher proposed that heat
was associated with phlogiston. In the 1700s, when Lavoisier connected oxygen with burning, the
phlogiston theory was discarded.

11
 However, Lavoisier replaced the heat-phlogiston theory with the theory of the Caloric, a
substance with no mass that could enter and leave other substances. Carnot adopted this concept and
applied it to his theories about heat transfer. Also in the 1700s, however, Bernoulli advanced the kinetic
theory of gases which led to the idea that the motion of molecules was responsible for the transfer of heat
(the idea described in the article). Clausius followed Bernoulli’s ideas in formulating the Law of
Conservation of Energy which included the concept of internal energy, that is, the energy of the
molecules of the substance. In the mid-1800s William Thomson affirmed the idea that heat was
equivalent to mechanical work, an idea that was further advanced forty years later by Benjamin
Thompson (Count Rumford) when he connected the concept of heat with the motion of particles. Later,
Joule’s experiments consolidated the connection between heat and the motion of particles.

It was the work of James Clerk Maxwell that finally sealed the fate of Caloric Theory when in the
late 1800s Maxwell published The Theory of Heat in which he created a framework for what we now
know as thermodynamics. Maxwell suggested that if two substances were in contact, separated only by a
thin wall with a door, and the particles of the two substances were traveling at different velocities, then if
a hypothetical character called Maxwell’s demon were to open the door in the wall, faster-moving
particles would pass through in one direction and slower-moving particles would pass through in the other
direction, eventually creating an equilibrium. We know now that it is not the exchange of particles but
collisions between particles of differing velocities that allows energy to be transferred. However,
Maxwell’s work dealt a fatal blow to the Caloric Theory.

More on temperature

In a previous section of this Teacher’s Guide we characterized matter as being made up

of atoms or molecules that are in constant random motion. This motion at the molecular level
gives the substance most of its internal energy in the form of kinetic energy. Recall that kinetic
energy is defined to be: KE = ½ mv2, where m is the mass of the object and v is its velocity. We
measure this kinetic energy by means of temperature. Temperature is defined to be a measure
of the average translational (or linear) kinetic energy of the atoms or molecules of a substance.
It is an average because individual particles in the substance are moving at different velocities.
We include the term “translational” here because, in addition to linear motion, particles also
undergo both vibrational and rotational motion, but these latter two are not usually included in
the temperature of a substance.

Picture a sample of a substance. It is composed of molecules, each of which is in

motion. Perhaps you can use a short simulation to help you and your students visualize this
behavior: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PZABxdkN1Cs . As noted above, the particles have
a range of velocities. The distribution at 27 oC (300 K on the graph below) would look like the
curve with the taller peak. Even though there is a distribution of velocities, the most probable
velocity corresponds to a temperature of 300 K. If the substance is heated to 1200 K the most
probable velocity moves further out the temperature axis, but there is still a range of molecular
velocities. In both cases some molecules are moving faster and some are moving slower. The
temperatures represent the average kinetic energy of the molecules.
(http://sholtoainslie.wordpress.com/portfolio/graphs/maxboltzcrv/)

12
This representation of molecular velocities is known as the Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution.

In a discussion of internal energy and heat, temperature is important not only because it
measures the internal energy but because it tells us the direction of heat flow between two
substances, as discussed in the article. If two substances at different temperatures are in
contact, heat will flow from the substance at the higher temperature to the substance at the
lower temperature until the two substances reach a thermal equilibrium. This is the primary
reason behind the central idea in the article that there is no such thing as cold. The “colder”
substance always receives the heat from the warmer substance, not the other way around. At
the molecular level the faster-moving particles of the warmer substance collide at random with
the slower-moving particles of the colder substance and in doing so transfer some energy—heat
—to them. See diagram below. As a result, the faster-moving particles slow down and the
slower-moving particles speed up, and the process continues until both sets of particles are
moving at the same average velocity. That is, the substances are at the same temperature.
They are in thermal equilibrium and no heat flows.

http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/thermo/temper2.html#c1

The relationship between temperature and the direction of heat flow is formally known as
the Second law of Thermodynamics. Recall that the First Law of Thermodynamics is the
application of the Law of Conservation of Energy to thermodynamics.

Thermometers and temperature scales—If temperature is a measure of particle velocity, how

is temperature measured? As most of your students will know, temperature is measured using a

13
thermometer. Although there are a variety of thermometers, the standard laboratory
thermometer is essentially a sealed glass tube with a very narrow bore and a reservoir of liquid
at one end. In order to measure the temperature of a substance the thermometer is immersed in
the substance so that the reservoir is completely surrounded by the substance. The liquid in the
reservoir, like all liquids, expands and contracts as heat is added or removed. The liquid
reservoir opens into a very narrow tube that travels the length of the thermometer so that as the
liquid expands or contracts the changes in the height of the liquid in the tube are visible to the
naked eye.

Reservoir narrow tube

Narrow tube
Liquid

http://home.howstuffworks.com/therm1.htm

In order to understand how the thermometer works we need to refer back to the Kinetic
Molecular Model (see “More on the motion of molecules”). The thermometer (the glass and the
liquid) is made up of particles that are moving with a range of velocities. When the thermometer
is immersed in a substance, the thermometer and the substances are in contact. The article
describes what will happen next. Particles of the substance will collide with particles of the
thermometer. If the particles of the substance are moving more rapidly than the particles making
up the thermometer, heat will be transferred to the thermometer, speeding up its particles. And if
the particles of the substance are traveling more slowly than those of the thermometer, heat will
flow from thermometer to the substance and the observed temperature will decrease. As noted
above, when a liquid is heated it expands so the liquid in the reservoir will expand. But it
expands into the narrow tube making up the length of the thermometer. What we see is the
liquid rising in the tube. When the thermometer and the substance come to thermal equilibrium
(when their temperatures are equal) the liquid remains at a certain level in the tube and we read
that level as the temperature of the substance.

Anyone, then, can make a thermometer and use any numbering system they choose.
However, for resulting temperature measurements to be consistent across multiple users there
must be a standard method of calibration. That is, a reading of, say, 20 o on one thermometer
must represent the same average molecular motion as a 20o reading on any other thermometer.
There must be a standard set of conditions used to calibrate all thermometers. Suppose we
choose two conditions that are easily obtainable under normal circumstances—the freezing
point of water and the boiling point of water. Let’s calibrate our thermometers at sea level where
atmospheric pressure equals 1 atm or 101 kPa, since we known that altitude affects boiling
point. We immerse our thermometer in an ice-water mixture that is at equilibrium and mark on
the thermometer the level of whatever liquid we are using in the thermometer. Then we immerse
the thermometer in boiling water, allow the thermometer to come to thermal equilibrium with the
boiling water, and again mark the level of liquid in the thermometer. We now have two standard
points on the thermometer, and we can divide that distance up into whatever number of equal
parts we choose. We can call each of those small divisions a “degree” or in the case of the
Kelvin scale, a “kelvin”.

But what scale and what numbers will we use for the temperature? That depends on
which temperature scale we choose—Fahrenheit, Celsius or Kelvin. Gabriel Fahrenheit
developed a temperature scale in the early 1700s that was based on two conditions. The first
was a mixture of ice, salt and water which he thought was the lowest possible temperature.

14
Fahrenheit called this temperature 0o. He used body temperature and thought that it was 96o.
So 0o and 96o were Fahrenheit’s standards. On this scale water froze at 32 oF and water boiled
at about 212 oF.

Soon after Fahrenheit’s work, Anders Celsius established a temperature scale based on
the freezing and boiling points of water with 100 equal divisions between (it was called the
“centigrade” scale because of the 100 divisions). Originally Celsius called the freezing point
100o and the boiling point 0o, but these were reversed soon after his death in 1745.

In the early 1800s the relationship between the temperature and volume of a gas had
been established by Charles and Gay-Lussac (and based on the much earlier work of
Amontons). If we plot the temperature of the gas vs. its volume and determine the slope of the
resulting curve, the y-intercept of the curve is -273 oC, suggesting that when the gas reaches a
temperature of -273 oC it would have zero volume The logical explanation for this is that at this
temperature all molecular motion
would cease, meaning the particles of
the gas would no longer be moving so
that the gas couldn’t occupy space via
the translation of the molecules.
That led William Thomson, later to be
known as Lord Kelvin, to theorize
that -273 oC was the lowest
attainable temperature, and to
establish a temperature scale with -
273 oC as the lowest possible
temperature and each “degree”
(now a “kelvin”) equal to 1 Co. Using
this temperature scale we can say
that molecular motion is directly
proportional to the Kelvin
temperature.
See the diagram at right for a
comparison of the three temperature scales.

http://www.windows2universe.org/physical_science/physics/thermal/kelvin_temperature_scale.html

There are also other types of thermometers. To read a ChemMatters article on

thermometers, see
http://www.acs.org/content/dam/acsorg/education/resources/highschool/chemmatters/
archive/december-2006.pdf . For more on types of thermometers see “More sites on
temperature,” below.

More on intermolecular forces

The initial example of thermal energy exchange given in the article involves adding an
ice cube to a soft drink. These are, in fact, two substances at different temperatures and so fit
the model being presented for thermal energy exchange. Heat does flow out of the soft drink
and into the ice cube. And the temperature of the soft drink decreases, but what happens to the
temperature of the ice cube? We know that its temperature remains constant. So the ice cube is

15
being heated but, as the article states, its temperature remains at 0 oC. We know that energy is
flowing into the ice cube. What is happening to that energy?

We need to consider two major ideas about the ice. The first is that, as the article
mentions, the particles of the ice (and the soft drink) are moving not only in a straight line—
translational motion—but they are also vibrating and rotating. Remember that temperature
measures translational motion only. So we tend to think that when the temperature increases,
the translational motion increases. This is true, but vibration and rotation also increase with
temperature, effectively preparing the solid to undergo a phase change. So when energy flows
into a substance which is undergoing a phase change the energy is converted not to kinetic
energy but to potential energy as the vibration of the particles increases in order to overcome
attractive forces between the molecules.

The second idea that is important here is that those attractive forces do, in fact, hold the
particles of solids (and liquids) together. The forces are strongest in solids, less so in liquids and
essentially negligible in gases. In order to overcome those stronger forces in a solid and convert
the solid to a liquid, energy must be added to the solid, not to raise its temperature but to
overcome the attractive forces. This amount of energy for ice is 6.01 kJ/mol, the molar heat of
fusion for ice.

H2O(s) → H2O(l) (@ 0°C) ΔHm = + 6.01 kJ/ mol

What, then, are these attractive forces that keep the water molecules in their crystal
lattice as ice? The ChemMatters October 2005 Teacher’s Guide for the article, Rohrig, B. The
Amazing Drinking Bird. ChemMatters 2005, 23 (3), pp 10–11, describes them.

There are three types of intermolecular forces in liquids. They are (in order of increasing
strength) London dispersion forces, dipole-dipole interactions, and hydrogen bonds. The relative
energies of intermolecular forces is much less than covalent or ionic bonding energies. The
following chart gives an approximation of the relative strengths in kJ/mol:
Covalent bonds 100–1000
Hydrogen bonds 10–40
Dipole-dipole 0.1–10
London forces 0.1–10
While covalent bond energies range from 150 to 800 kJ/mol, the energy required to overcome
intermolecular attractions are usually less than 40 kJ/mol. For example, it takes 464 kJ/mol to
break the H--O bonds within a water molecule and only 41 kJ/mol to break the bonds between
water molecules. The energy required to vaporize a liquid is the energy needed to break these
intermolecular attractions.

London dispersion forces (one of the three forces that are, in aggregate, known as van
der Waals forces) arise from temporary charges that arise in non-polar molecules involving atoms
with larger number of electrons. Dipole-dipole interactions (the second type of van der Waals
forces) are electrostatic forces created by the partial positive and negative charges within
neighboring molecules that exhibit some degree of polarity. Hydrogen bonds (the last of van der
Waals forces) are the best known of the three and are the attractions between a polar covalently
bonded hydrogen atom in one molecule and an electronegative atom with one (or more)
nonbonding pair(s) of valence electrons in a neighboring molecule. Hydrogen bonding occurs
most often in covalently bonded molecules involving nitrogen, oxygen, fluorine and chlorine.
(http://www.acs.org/content/acs/en/education/resources/highschool/chemmatters/past-
issues.html)

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In the water molecule it is primarily hydrogen bonds that create ice’s crystal lattice structure.
And it is the hydrogen bonds that demand that “extra” energy to enable the solid ice to become
liquid water.

For every mole of water melted we must add 6.01 kJ of thermal energy just to overcome
the attractive forces holding the water molecules
in the hexagonal lattice structure we associate
with ice (see diagram at right). Adding this
energy changes the arrangement of the
molecules and so changes their potential
energy. Remember that thermometers do not
respond to changes in potential energy so while
the ice cube is changing phase the temperature
remains constant at 0 oC.

In the article example there is ice http://www.historyoftheuniverse.com/?p=ice.htm

remaining when the scenario ends so the final temperature is 0 oC, the melting point of ice. In
reality that is unlikely to be the final temperature of the system because while the soft drink is
losing thermal energy to the ice, it is gaining energy from the air around it. Collisions are taking
place between molecules of the air and the soft drink container, the air and the soft drink itself,
and since the air temperature is likely higher than that of the soft drink, heat is being added to
the soft drink. Left for some period of time, the ice will all melt and the ice-soft drink energy
exchange will cease, but the air-soft drink exchange continues until they reach a thermal
equilibrium—most likely back at room temperature unless the soft drink is consumed
beforehand.

Something similar can be said for the example given at the end of the article about
dipping a finger into water and waving it in the air. Instead of a solid-liquid phase change like the
ice-soft drink example early in the article, this is a liquid-gas phase change. Particles in liquids
are held together by intermolecular forces, and this is especially true in water where hydrogen
bonds exert significant attractive forces between water molecules.

In this case some of the water molecules—those with higher kinetic energy—are
moving rapidly enough to overcome the relatively strong intermolecular forces holding the water
molecules together. What we observe at a macroscopic level is that water is evaporating. The
water left behind on your finger is at a slightly lower temperature (remember that temperature is
a measure of average kinetic energy and some of the molecules with higher kinetic energy have
just left, resulting in a lower average kinetic energy—temperature—for the water left behind).
Since the water and your skin are in contact, energy is transferred from your warmer skin to the
cooler water. Again, at a macroscopic level your skin feels cooler because energy has been
removed.

More on methods of heat transfer

The article focuses on heat transfer between two substances that are in contact—the ice
cubes and the soft drink. The transfer of energy depends on the collisions between the
molecules of warmer soft drink and the molecules of the cooler ice cubes, and this requires that
the two be in direct contact. The heat is transferred via collisions between molecules of the two
substances in contact. The term applied to this type of heat transfer is conduction. It is the main

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method of heat transfer involving solids since the particles in a solid are close to each other. Of
the three phases of matter, solids are the best conductors of heat. Earlier sections of the
Teacher’s Guide explain this method of heat exchange.

Because the particles in liquids and gases are farther apart, there are few collisions
between the particles of liquids and gases, making poor heat conductors (and better insulators).
But heat can be transferred in liquids and gases by convection. In this method the liquid or gas
transfer heat by the bulk movement of the fluid; that is, a mass of liquid or gas moves from place
to place carrying energy with it.

Consider an example—a pot of water on the stovetop. When the burner is turned on
heat is applied to the pot which conducts heat from its outside surface to inside. The heat is
then transferred to the water near the bottom of the pot by conduction. As that bottom mass of
water is heated it expands and consequently its density decreases. That bulk mass of water
now has a lower density than the water surrounding it. So the heated water rises toward the
water surface, while cooler surrounding water descends to replace the now unoccupied volume.
The rising heated water carries energy toward the water’s surface, and cooler surface water
moves downward to be heated by the bottom of the pot. As this process continues, currents of
water move throughout the sample, distributing heat as its moves. These are called convection
currents and they are critical for the movement of energy in the atmosphere, the hydrosphere
and the lithosphere. Convection is the main method of heat transfer in the environment. This
method should not be confused with the Caloric Theory of Heat mentioned earlier in this
Teacher’s Guide. In the Caloric Theory it was the zero-mass fluid called heat that was thought
to move in and out of substances. In convection bulk parts of the fluid matter itself moves
carrying heat with it.

The third method of heat transfer is radiation. In this case the energy is transferred by
means of electromagnetic waves. All substances at temperatures above 0 K radiate energy at a
range of wave lengths, but primarily in the form of infrared or heat. Since atoms and molecules
and their electrons are in motion, colliding with each other and, therefore, accelerating, they
radiate electromagnetic energy. Note that in the diagram of the electromagnetic spectrum
below, as the temperature of the emitting body increases the frequency of the predominating
radiation also increases. For objects at temperatures commonly found on the earth, the
radiation is in the infrared or heat range. So we say that all bodies here on Earth radiate heat.

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 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:EM_Spectrum_Properties_edit.svg)

The diagram below further indicates the emission spectrum for a black body at 300 K (27 oC).
All of its radiation is in the infrared range, which includes wave lengths from 1 µm to 1000 µm.

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 (http://en.citizendium.org/wiki/Black-body_radiation)
Of course, all objects are also able to absorb energy. So, objects (or substances) are both
radiating energy to their surroundings, provided the surroundings are at a lower temperature,
and absorbing energy from surroundings that are at higher temperatures.

The unique aspect of heat transfer by radiation is that energy can be transmitted through
space (which is essentially a vacuum) in this manner. The energy from the Sun is radiated to
Earth via radiation. Radiation does not require a material medium to transfer energy.

So although the article emphasizes heat transfer by conduction it may also be

transferred by convection or radiation.

Connections to Chemistry Concepts

(for correlation to course curriculum)
1. Thermochemistry—Much of the thermodynamics presented in this article provides
important background for many thermochemistry concepts.
2. Temperature—Temperature and kinetic energy are central concepts in this article.
3. Kinetic energy—All three methods of heat transfer, including conduction described in the
article, are based on the kinetic energy of the particles of a substance.
4. Potential energy—Two of the examples used in the article depend on change of phase,
and the energy exchange in change of phase involves potential energy.
5. Kinetic molecular model—The basic concept underlying this article is that the random
motion of particles in a substance and the accompanying internal energy provides the basis
for heat flow.
6. Intermolecular forces—These forces hold molecules together and they come into play
when changes of phase occur.
7. Change of phase—It is important for students to understand the basic ideas behind change
of phase so that they can understand the examples given in the article.

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Possible Student Misconceptions
(to aid teacher in addressing misconceptions)
1. “I thought there was such a thing as cold. The article says there is no such thing.”
The main point of the article is to dispel this misconception. If we define internal energy in
terms of the motion of atoms and molecules (in addition to the potential energy stored in
molecules), then as particles move faster or slower, the substance has more or less internal
energy. And when substances with different internal energies (as defined by their respective
temperatures) come in contact, heat is transferred from the substance with the higher
temperature—the warmer substance—to the substance with the lower temperature—the
colder substance.
2. “How can there be different temperature scales? Aren’t all temperatures the
same?” The confusion here results from having several different temperature scales. The
numbers we put on a thermometer are arbitrary. So if we place a thermometer in boiling
water (at sea level) the molecules of water will always behave the same way. What we call
the level of the liquid in that thermometer is up to us. Fahrenheit called it 32 o, but Celsius
called it 0o— resulting in two different numbers to describe the same conditions. The two
different numbers represent the same conditions in the matter—water boils.

Anticipating Student Questions

(answers to questions students might ask in class)
1. “What’s the answer to the ‘pop quiz’ at the beginning of the article?” The answer is
“a.” Heat is transferred from the soda to the ice. The central idea in this article is that heat is
always transferred from the substance with the higher temperature to the substance with the
lower temperature. Since the ice is at the lower temperature, heat flows into it. Because the
ice makes the soft drink colder, it may seem like cold is flowing into the soft drank, but in
reality there is no such thing as cold.
2. “What’s the difference between kinetic and potential energy?” Kinetic energy is energy
possessed by a moving object. If we are dealing with atoms and molecules, temperature is
directly related to kinetic energy. An increase in temperature means an increase in the
kinetic energy of those particles. Potential energy is best described as energy of position. In
order to increase the distance between atoms or molecules, energy must be added. If the
distance between particles decreases, then their potential energy decreases. A useful
analogy is to think of masses that move away from or toward the earth. To move a mass
farther from the earth, an input of energy is needed—there is an increase in the potential
energy of the mass. For that same mass to move closer to the earth, the mass gives up
some energy of position, potential energy.

In-class Activities
(lesson ideas, including labs & demonstrations)

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1. Students can make their own thermometers in class using one of many procedures
available on the web, like http://home.howstuffworks.com/therm1.htm or
http://www.hometrainingtools.com/make-thermometer-science-project/a/1533/ or
http://pbskids.org/zoom/activities/sci/thermometer.html.
2. A simple demonstration to show students that there are spaces between molecules is
the alcohol-water mixture activity. http://infohost.nmt.edu/~jaltig/EthanolWaterMix.pdf
Rubbing alcohol can be used as well. This is an alternate procedure to show spaces
between particles: http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/ed074p1357.1.
3. Students can determine the heat of fusion for the ice cube by doing this experiment:
http://www2.bakersfieldcollege.edu/dkimball/Physical%20Science/New%20Labs/Exp
%204%20Heat%20of%20Fusion-Melting%20Ice.pdf.
4. This lab/demonstration from NASA allows students to better understand methods of heat
transfer: http://genesismission.jpl.nasa.gov/educate/scimodule/heat/develop_1TG.pdf.
5. You can show this video as a demonstration to provide students with evidence of
molecular motion. The motion of the tiny dots in this video is the movement of very small
milk fat droplets as a result of being buffeted by invisible water molecules. This is Brownian
motion. (http://protonsforbreakfast.wordpress.com/2012/04/11/brownian-motion-observed-
in-milk/) This animation may make the motion clearer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=3EHQf3HRiDc.
6. A demonstration to show molecular motion involves the reaction between ammonia and
hydrochloric acid to produce a white cloud in a tube. A procedure for this demo can be found
here: http://www.nuffieldfoundation.org/practical-chemistry/diffusion-gases-ammonia-and-
hydrogen-chloride.
7. This resource has a lot of background content on intermolecular forces and also has five
labs on these forces. The first is a lab on polymer cross-linking, the second is on
electrostatic forces, the third is the classic “water drops on a penny” lab, the fourth lab is on
rates of evaporation and the fifth is on solubility.
(http://www.haspi.org/curriculum-library/Med-Chem-lessons/03%20Standard
%202%20Chemical%20Bonds/Labs%20and%20Activities/IntermolecularForces.pdf)
8. This activity from the American Chemical Society about molecular motion and the effect
of temperature is designed for middle school students, but can be adapted for high school.
(http://www.middleschoolchemistry.com/lessonplans/chapter1/lesson2)
9. Students can see the results of ions in motion in this lab activity:
http://serc.carleton.edu/sp/mnstep/activities/26321.html.
10. NASA provides this lab on methods of heat transfer:
http://genesismission.jpl.nasa.gov/educate/scimodule/heat/develop_1TG.pdf.
11. The U.S. Department of Energy developed a Thermodynamics Study Guide complete
with background ideas and labs about heat, heat transfer and related concepts about
matter. A Teacher’s Guide is included.
(http://www1.eere.energy.gov/education/lessonplans/plans.aspx?id=216)
12. This is an interesting demonstration to illustrate convection:
http://www.atmos.washington.edu/~durrand/demos/convection_conduction.htm.
13. This lab activity can be done by students or as a teacher demonstration to illustrate heat
transfer by conduction:
(http://galileo.phys.virginia.edu/outreach/8thgradesol/HeatConductionFrm.htm)

Out-of-class Activities and Projects

(student research, class projects)

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1. Students can run the simulations developed at the University of Oregon to better
understand heat transfer and thermodynamic equilibrium.
(http://jersey.uoregon.edu/vlab/Thermodynamics/)
2. Students can also runs this interactive simulation on their own to better understand the
three methods of heat transfer: http://www.wisc-online.com/Objects/ViewObject.aspx?
ID=SCE304)
3. Assign students to make a list of situations they see where heat is being transferred,
noting what type of transfer is involved. They can compare lists or make brief presentations
of the examples.
4. If there are any student photographers in your class, they may be able and willing to take
infrared images and share them with the rest of the class. Alternately, you might find a
professional photographer who has infrared photographs to share.

References
(non-Web-based information sources)
The references below can be found on the NEW
ChemMatters 30-year CD (which includes all articles published
from its inception in September, 1983 through April, 2013). The CD
is available from the American Chemical Society at www.acs.org.

Selected articles and the complete set of Teacher’s

Guides for all issues from the past three years are also
available—free—online at this same site. Full ChemMatters
articles and Teacher’s Guides are available on the 30-year
CD for all past issues (Teacher’s Guides from February 1990), up to
2013.

Some of the more recent articles (2002 forward) may also be available online at the
URL listed above. Simply click on the “Past Issues” button directly below the “M” in the
ChemMatters logo at the top of the page. If the article is available online, you will find it there.
Rohrig, B, Thermometers. ChemMatters 2006, 24 (4), pp 14–17. This article explains the
difference between heat and temperature, compares temperature scales, illustrates several
types of thermometers and describes the history of thermometry.

Rohrig, B. The Amazing Drinking Bird. ChemMatters 2005, 23 (3), pp 10–11. In this
article the author describes the workings of the drinking bird based on change of phase. The
Teacher’s Guide for this article has a section on the intermolecular forces that hold molecules
together.

Web Sites for Additional Information

(Web-based information sources)
More sites on Kinetic Molecular Model

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 This site offers an interactive simulation look at the Kinetic Theory of Matter:
http://preparatorychemistry.com/KMT_flash.htm.

This site provides an introduction to kinetic theory and includes applications to change of
phases: http://www.mentorials.com/high-school-chemistry-matter-kinetic-theory-of-matter.htm.

Even though this site is not very well designed, it offers basic descriptions of the
concepts involved in the Kinetic Model of Matter:
http://olevelphysicsblog.blogspot.com/2010/09/kinetic-model-of-matter.html)

More sites on heat

The online HyperPhysics textbook hosted by Georgia State University has an extensive
section on thermodynamics and provides information for the general public and the experts:
http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/hframe.html.

Through the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s OpenCourseWare initiative, this

textbook on heat transfer is available online. Even though it is written for college students, the
first few chapters are useful for high school students: http://web.mit.edu/lienhard/www/ahtt.html.

Another online textbook, this one from Simon Fraser University, contains excellent
background material on chemical dynamics and the First Law of Thermodynamics.
(http://www.chem1.com/acad/webtext/energetics/)

A high school science teacher developed material on heat and heat transfer that is
helpful in understanding these topics.
(http://www.physicsclassroom.com/class/thermalP/u18l1d.cfm)

This site focuses primarily on entropy but also includes the Second law of
Thermodynamics. The site is aimed at college-level students and connects entropy and heat in
easy-to-understand ways that explain the conventional entropy equations.
(http://entropysite.oxy.edu/students_approach.html)

Purdue University’s chemistry department has a page that explains in some detail
concepts like thermodynamics, heat and internal energy.
(http://chemed.chem.purdue.edu/genchem/topicreview/bp/ch21/chemical.php)

More sites on temperature

For more on how thermometers work see

http://www.energyquest.ca.gov/how_it_works/thermometer.html or
http://home.howstuffworks.com/therm.htm. The latter site includes descriptions of electronic
thermometers, the Galileo thermometer, eardrum thermometer and turkey timer.

For a brief history of thermometry from Thermoworks see

http://thermoworks.com/learning/thermometry101_a_brief_history_of_thermometry.html.

Another page from the teacher-designed Physics Classroom site explains thermometers
and temperature: http://www.physicsclassroom.com/Class/thermalP/u18l1b.cfm.

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More sites on the history of heat theory

This online article from the Journal of Nutrition describes the history of the calorie as a
unit of heat: http://jn.nutrition.org/content/136/12/2957.full.pdf+html.

The Infinite Energy site has a page titled “A Brief History of Hot and Cold.”
(http://www.infinite-energy.com/iemagazine/issue37/mysteries.html)

More sites on methods of heat transfer

The BBC in the United Kingdom offers this page on heat transfer by conduction,
convection and radiation:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/science/aqa/heatingandcooling/heatingrev2.shtml.

Visual learners will benefit from this interactive site on the methods of heat transfer:
http://www.wisc-online.com/Objects/ViewObject.aspx?ID=SCE304.

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