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Wed 22 Apr, 2009 02:40 pm
what is an example of thermal energy
Here are some clues for you. On our planet, we can see both small and vast examples of thermal exchange. When you touch something hot, and your hand "feels" the heat, that heat is being transferred by conduction. When you hold your hand near a camp fire, and you feel the heat of the fire from the heated air around it, you are experiencing the transfer of heat by radiation (as well as conduction--it is radiated in all directions, and reaches your hand, conducted through the air). When you pour cream into a glass of hot coffee, and you see the cream fall to the bottom, and then swirl up again along the sides, you are seeing the transfer of heat by convection.
Conduction, radiation and convection take place on a much grander scale in weather systems. When a mass of moist air moves over a surface of the earth heated by the sun, the heat in the surface is radiated into the atmosphere, and by convection, towering "thunder heads" rise up in the (relatively) cooler air mass, bringing lines of thunderstorms along the front of the air mass. The ultimate expression of this convection in the violence of nature is the cyclonic storm--by sea, a typhoon or a hurricane, and by land, a tornado.
Go to a search engine, such as Google, and search for "conduction," "radiation" and "convection." You will have to learn how to refine your search, since "radiation," at least, will yield a good deal more than just a discussion of thermal transfer.
Thank You to everyone for all of your help. For you rude people out there get a life..... you loser{s}