Target

Families

Thematic

Meteorology | Chemistry | Physics

Ciência Viva at home

Kitchen

Keywords

chemistry | physics | temperature

Duration

60 min

Typology

Experimental protocol

When walking barefoot on a wooden floor, we feel that it is hotter than a stone floor. Foot and stone exchange heat much more quickly than foot and wood because wood is a bad conductor of heat. Bad heat conductors are called thermal insulators. Finding the right material for a specific use is an important task, such as choosing a tiled floor for a beach house, or the right clothes for that season. For this we compare these materials according to their thermal conductivity. Since the thermal conductivity of the air is very low, we can say that the heat hardly propagates through the air, by conduction. Air is a bad conductor of heat. Aluminium and other metals are good thermal conductors, meaning that heat spreads through them very quickly. They have high thermal conductivity.

This activity comes under the program #cienciavivaathome. From the kitchen to the bathroom, even walking through the garage, no room was left out: after all, science is everywhere!