Have you ever burned the roof of your mouth on hot soup? Or burned your feet when walking across the pavement on a hot summer day? Thermal energy that is transferred from matter at a higher temperature to matter at a lower temperature is called heat. Heat is transferred from warmer matter to cooler matter.

But how does heat move from warmer matter to cooler matter? Heat moves in three different ways: by conduction, convection, and radiation.

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Think back to the mitten problem from section 1. Why did the temperature of thermometer not increase inside the mitten? Write your answer on your paper.

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Check Your Answer

Heat is thermal energy that is transferred from matter at a higher temperature to matter at a lower temperature. A heat source can produce its own heat energy or it may simply be an object that is at a higer temperature than the surroundings. Since there was no addition of heat energy inside the mitten, the mitten will have the same temperature as the surrounding air.