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The term "thermal energy" is often used ambiguously in physics and engineering. [1] It can denote several different physical concepts, including: Internal energy: The energy contained within a body of matter or radiation, excluding the potential energy of the whole system, and excluding the kinetic energy of the system moving as a whole.
In thermodynamics, heat is energy in transfer between a thermodynamic system and its surroundings by modes other than thermodynamic work and transfer of matter. Such modes are microscopic, mainly thermal conduction, radiation, and friction, as distinct from the macroscopic modes, thermodynamic work and transfer of matter. [1]
A thermal column (or thermal) is a rising mass of buoyant air, a convective current in the atmosphere, that transfers heat energy vertically. [1] Thermals are created by the uneven heating of Earth's surface from solar radiation , and are an example of convection , specifically atmospheric convection .
where U 0 denotes the internal energy of the combined system, and U 1 and U 2 denote the internal energies of the respective separated systems. Adapted for thermodynamics, this law is an expression of the principle of conservation of energy, which states that energy can be transformed (changed from one form to another), but cannot be created or ...
This thermal energy drives plate tectonics and may lift mountains, via orogenesis. This slow lifting represents a kind of gravitational potential energy storage of the thermal energy, which may later be transformed into active kinetic energy during landslides, after a triggering event. Earthquakes also release stored elastic potential energy in ...
The macroscopic energy equation for infinitesimal volume used in heat transfer analysis is [6] = +, ˙, where q is heat flux vector, −ρc p (∂T/∂t) is temporal change of internal energy (ρ is density, c p is specific heat capacity at constant pressure, T is temperature and t is time), and ˙ is the energy conversion to and from thermal ...
Thermal radiation is the emission of electromagnetic waves from all matter that has a temperature greater than absolute zero. [5] [2] Thermal radiation reflects the conversion of thermal energy into electromagnetic energy. Thermal energy is the kinetic energy of random movements of atoms and molecules in matter. It is present in all matter of ...
By the principle of minimum energy, there are a number of other state functions which may be defined which have the dimensions of energy and which are minimized according to the second law under certain conditions other than constant entropy. These are called thermodynamic potentials. For each such potential, the relevant fundamental equation ...