The kinetic energy of particles increase and they move fast.

[uniqueboy]

hi
im really confused about the exact heat transfer mechanism of the phenomenon i observed
the situations simple: if you immerse a red hot wire into water with small particles floating on the surface, the particles move really fast.

at first, i thought it could be explained simply by the kinetic theory of matter.
the kinetic energy of particles increase and they move fast.

1. but, after thinking more deeply about I am not so sure how exactly the heat is transferred.
conduction doesn't seem like it since conduction applies to "solids" or "stationary liquid".
but in this case, the water molecules move very fast as well.
so, if that's the case, it seems like a "bulk motion", so does that mean this is a case of convection?

2. also, thinking about the very moment that the water molecule hits the wire and bounces off... by how much does the kinetic energy of the water molecule increase? is it possible to calculate?

3. i used the glitter as the particles in my experiment, which is relatively large.
so, can i still think of it as brownian motion? can i think of the particles suspended in the liquid and therefore in thermal equilibrium with the water molecules??

 

[LightHero]

The heat transfer mechanism in this situation is likely a combination of conduction and convection. The red hot wire conducts heat to the surrounding water molecules, which causes them to move faster (convection). As the water molecules move faster, they carry the heat from the wire to the surrounding particles, which causes them to move faster as well. The kinetic energy of the water molecules increases as they hit and bounce off the wire. It is possible to calculate the increase in kinetic energy, but it would depend on the mass of the water molecule, the speed of the molecule before and after hitting the wire, and the coefficient of restitution between the wire and the water molecule. The glitter particles may experience Brownian motion, which is a random movement due to thermal energy. The particles will be in thermal equilibrium with the water molecules, meaning that their kinetic energy will match the kinetic energy of the water molecules.