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With the arrival of summer and the good weather, we begin to hear more and more frequently about heat and high temperatures. However, although both concepts have a lot in common, the reality is that they are different things and it is convenient to learn to distinguish between one, the other and the meaning of both.
Do you want to know the difference between heat and temperature? In the following Green Ecologist article we will explain it to you, as well as its definition and other related aspects.
What are heat and temperature?
To speak of temperature is to speak of a physical quantity, that is, a concrete and objective form of measurement. In fact, the temperature is the magnitude that allows us to measure heat or cold on a concrete object. This means that the temperature will be expressed in concrete and determined units, whether in degrees Celsius, Fahrenheit, or any other unit.
What is temperature
In fact, talking about temperature, regardless of the unit of measurement used, is talking about the Do you want to know the difference between heat and temperature? In the following Green Ecologist article we will explain it to you, as well as its definition and other related aspects … However, although when we say heat we can think of high temperatures, the reality is that the temperature can be very low, since the heat of a body can be equally low. In this way, heat would be the magnitude to be measured, and temperature the way we express that magnitude.
What is heat
When we talk about heat, what we are actually mentioning is the kinetic energy contained in an object or body. This, in turn, can be understood as the movement of the atoms that make up said object. In this way, the greater the kinetic energy of a body, the greater the heat it accumulates, or, in other words, the more its atoms move, the more heat the object in question will experience. Thus, when speaking of cold, what we are really referring to is simply the absence of heat. That is, to the absence of movement of the atoms and, consequently, to the absence of kinetic energy.
Difference between heat and temperature
As we have seen, the heat is a measurable quantity, while the temperature would be the expression of said magnitude referred to a specific object. That is, although both things are closely related to each other, in reality, the only thing that exists objectively is heat (kinetic energy), while temperature would be the way in which we express a specific amount of heat in human language.
Examples of heat
One of the aspects that must be taken into account when we speak of heat or cold referring to people or animals is that, despite what we have mentioned previously, they would be different elements. When speaking of heat from a physical perspective, we are referring to a measurable and quantifiable quantity, which can be expressed in a concrete way in the form of temperature. This heat, or cold, it's exactly the same for everyone, since it refers to something objective.
However, it is very common for people experience heat and cold differently, which, at first, does not seem to make any sense if we start from a physical magnitude that is identical for all. This is because, in addition to the physical perspective of heat, we can also speak of the subjective perspective.
From this perspective, heat and cold would no longer be concrete physical quantities, but sensations that each individual would perceive in a personal way, that is to say, subjective. In this context, it is important to understand that heat would no longer be something measurable or understandable through temperature. In fact, it is very common for people to express their thermal sensation in terms other than temperature, such as "very cold", "very hot", "neither cold nor hot", and so on. These terms, although in colloquial language, are of great help to us to express what we feel, they don't have any kind of objective value, since, what for some may be cold, for others may be heat, which will not make the temperature we are referring to different, although the way it is felt by each person or animal.
In this way, when talking about heat as a physical quantity, we will be referring to the measurable kinetic energy that can be expressed in the form of temperature. Whereas, when speaking of heat as a sensation, we will be referring to a sensory experience, which can be described but not specified in numerical terms of temperature.
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