Energy Matters Practice Flashcards

Vocabulary terms based on the lecture regarding energy transfer, particle motion, thermal expansion, and temperature measurement tools.

Heating

The process where energy is transferred to a substance, causing an increase in the energy of its particles and a resulting increase in temperature.

Cooling

The process where energy moves away from a substance to another substance or the environment, causing a decrease in the energy of its particles and a decrease in temperature.

Expansion

The process where a substance takes up more space as its temperature increases because particles gain energy, move faster, and become further apart.

Contraction

The process where solids, liquids, and gases lose energy and slow down when cooled, needing less space to move in and becoming more strongly attracted to each other.

Water Anomaly

The behavior of water where the spaces between particles get larger as the temperature drops below $4\,^{\circ}C$, resulting in a volume increase of nearly $10\,\%$ by the time it freezes at $0\,^{\circ}C$.

Mercury

A liquid used in bulb thermometers with a low freezing point of $-39\,^{\circ}C$ and a high boiling point of $357\,^{\circ}C$.

Alcohol

A liquid used in thermometers for very cold conditions because it does not freeze until $-117\,^{\circ}C$, although it cannot measure high temperatures as it boils at $79\,^{\circ}C$.

Clinical Thermometer

A thermometer designed to measure the human body temperature range between $34\,^{\circ}C$ and $42\,^{\circ}C$, featuring a narrowing near the bulb to prevent liquid contraction before a reading is taken.

Digital Thermometer

A device containing a thermostat that measures resistance to electric current to calculate and display temperature, rather than using expansion and contraction of liquids.

Water Vapour

An invisible gas formed when particles in hot water gain enough energy to escape from each other and move around freely.

Condensation

The process where energy is transferred away from water vapour, causing its particles to slow down and turn into tiny droplets of liquid water.

Thermostat

A sealed solid embedded inside digital thermometers whose resistance to electric current depends on temperature.