Difference Between Heat and Temperature

Heat vs Temperature

If one does a cursory examination of the physical world, it would seem that heat and temperature are the same thing. For instance, when you turn on an oven, you would say that it heats up. At the same time its temperature increases. For this kind of general purpose, it is easy to confuse heat and temperature. However, when you are working within the realm of physics there are many differences between heat and temperature.

Unit of Measure
Heat ‘“ is measured in joules. Joules represent the amount of energy that heat transfers. Watts measure the rate of this energy transfer. Watts equal joules over seconds.
Temperature ‘“ is measured in a variety of scales. The three most common scales are Kelvin, Celsius, and Fahrenheit. Kelvin is a primarily scientific scale based on the concept of absolute zero. Celsius is used around the world to measure scientific and consumer temperatures. The use of the Fahrenheit scale is confined to the US a few other small countries.

What it Measures
Heat ‘“ measures all the energy in a specific piece of matter. This includes the kinetic energy created by molecular movement as well as the potential energy stored in the molecular bonds. Heat is considered to be a form of energy that is constantly moving.
Temperature ‘“ measures only the kinetic energy given off by moving molecules.

Heat and temperature are both governed by the laws of thermodynamics. These laws state that nature is constantly trying to evenly distribute all the energy in a closed system, in this case, the universe. You can imagine energy as a stream that is constantly flowing downhill, traveling from one pool to the next until they are all evenly filled.

There are two ways that nature can transfer energy. She can use work or she can use heat. One of the simplest definitions of heat is the transfer of energy from one object to another. If an object with a higher temperature is placed next to an object with a lower temperature, energy will flow out of the hotter object and into the colder one until they have reached equilibrium. This phenomenon is observable as you watch your hot food cool to room temperature or a pen warm up the longer you hold it in your hand.

The transfer of energy as heat relates to temperature because as the heat transfers energy from one object to another, the molecules in the object receiving the heat will speed up, thus increasing the amount of kinetic energy in the object. More kinetic energy means a greater temperature.

Summary
1.To the casual observer heat and temperature refer to the same phenomenon of an object getting hotter.
2.Heat and temperature are measures with different units.
3.Temperature measures the movements of molecules in an object while heat measures both molecular movement and potential molecular energy.
4.Heat and temperature are governed by the laws of thermodynamics and work together to keep energy flowing from hotter to colder objects.

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