Heat and temperature
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1. Thermal energy

Figure 7.1
This unusual landscape is found in the hottest place in the U.S.A.: Death Valley, California.

The temperature of the air near the ground can be as high as 57 °C , and that’s in the shade (if you can find any)!

The temperature of the sand in the baking sun can be much higher. If you were to walk barefoot on the hot sand, it would burn your feet. The air and sand in Death Valley have a lot of thermal energy.

What Is Thermal Energy?

Why does the air and sand of Death Valley feel so hot?

It’s because their particles are moving very rapidly.

Anything that is moving has kinetic energy, and the faster it is moving, the more kinetic energy it has.

The total kinetic energy of moving particles of matter is called thermal energy.

It’s not just hot things such as the air and sand of Death Valley that have thermal energy.

All matter has thermal energy, even matter that feels cold.

That’s because the particles of all matter are in constant motion and have kinetic energy.

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