If you are near something hot, say an open flame, you can feel the heat radiating from the fire. I have a juvenile understanding of thermodynamics, but I understand that there is energy radiating from the heat source which is what I’m feeling.
By contrast, if you hover your hand near an ice cold drink, you can FEEL the cold before even touching the glass.
How is this possible since my hand is seemingly radiating more energy than the drink is? Is what I’m feeling just the energy leaving my hand and entering the drink?
In: 9
>you can FEEL the cold before even touching the glass.
This may be too short an answer for eli5, but the phenomenon of feeling cold radiate off a cold beverage, or a window in the winter, is simply due to the conduction of the heat in the air towards the cold body. The cold drink and the (relatively) warm air exchange energy to create an equilibrium – which will be warmer than the drink’s initial temperature and colder than the air’s initial temperature. Thus, compared to the air far away from the class (that can’t directly conduct heat to the glass) the air immediately surrounding the perimeter of the glass is colder. In reality, cold cannot radiate, and even though air conducting near a cold body may mirror heat radiation – it’s a different process. Although a good chunk of the heat you feel from a fire is also conductive through the air
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