Activity: Heat transfer

Nick preparing for the heat transfer activity.

On SCOPE's metals episode, you saw Nick look at heat transfer. Here’s how he did it. Watch the clip.

What you need

• Ice cubes or ice cube tray
• Wooden chopping board
• Metal frying pan that hasn’t been used recently
• Ice cream, bowl and spoon (optional but yummy)

What to do

1. Take some ice out of the freezer.
2. Place the metal frying pan alongside the wooden chopping board on your kitchen bench.
3. Put one of your hands flat on the base of the frying pan and put your other hand on the chopping board. Think about which one feels colder and which one you think will melt ice faster.
4. Now put a piece of ice on the chopping board and a piece of ice on the frypan. Which one melts faster?
5. Now put the ice cream in a bowl and eat it with a spoon. Think about how good it tastes.

What's happening?

Have you ever wondered why we use metal pots and pans in the kitchen but wooden spoons to stir! Well it’s all to do with the way different materials conduct heat. It’s called heat transfer!

When two objects meet, heat energy moves from the warmer object to the cooler object. The speed that the heat moves depends on the temperature difference, and on how well the objects conduct heat. A good conductor can carry or transmit heat really well.

In the heat transfer experiment, the frying pan and the chopping board both started at room temperature which is colder than your hands. Even though they were the same temperature, you probably noticed that the frying pan felt cooler to touch than the wooden chopping board. That was because frying pans are made using metals which are good conductors of heat.

The metal felt cool because it is pulling heat energy away from your finger quickly when you touched it. The wood from the chopping board is a poor conductor so it can’t pull the heat away from your fingers as quickly.

With the ice cubes the process was reversed! The ice was much colder than the pan and chopping board so heat moved from the warmer surfaces of the metal and wood into the ice. With the metal, the heat moved into the ice, and more heat was conducted in to replace it. With the wood, some heat was moved into the ice but hardly any heat was conducted to replace it. This means that over time, the metal melts the ice much faster than the wooden board and this is entirely due to heat transfer!