Energy cannot be created or destroyed, then where does it go when cooling or heating over time?
In: Physics
Heat isn’t equivalent to any energy. Heat is the flow of (thermal) energy. It’s like asking what happens to water at the bottom of a waterfall. It’s still there. It’s just stopped flowing.
Heat stops flowing when things are in thermal equilibrium, which is a fancy way of saying at the same temperature. When things are the same temperature, heat stops flowing. All the thermal energy (commonly mistaken for heat) is still there, it’s just stopped flowing between things. Hence, no more heat.
If you have a pot of hot water at 100 C in a room at 20C. Heat will leave the pot and enter the room. The final equilibrium might be the water and room at, say, 21C. The result depends on how much stuff there is (room bigger than a pot) and how much energy it can hold (water holds more than air). The thermal energy is all still there, it’s just equalized between the pot and room.
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