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Energy

Reducing unwanted energy transfer, and the rate of cooling

  • 3 things to know
  • Paper 6 (Physics)

Overview

How wall thickness and thermal conductivity decide how fast a building cools, cavity wall and loft insulation, double glazing and draught excluders, how lubricating a bicycle chain or noisy bearings cuts wasted energy, and the surface area of a hot water tank.

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

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Key term

Which two properties of a building's walls affect how quickly it cools down?

Key term

What is meant by the thermal conductivity of a material?

Key term

How does the rate of cooling of a building change if its walls are built from a material of higher thermal conductivity?

Questions from this subtopic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

  1. 1

    Which two properties of a building's walls affect how quickly it cools down?

    Model answer

    The thickness of the walls and the thermal conductivity of the material they are made from.

  2. 2

    What is meant by the thermal conductivity of a material?

    Model answer

    A measure of how readily energy is transferred through it by conduction.

  3. 3

    How does increasing the thickness of a building's walls affect its rate of cooling?

    Model answer

    It lowers the rate of cooling, because energy has to be conducted through a greater thickness of material.

  4. 4

    How does the rate of cooling of a building change if its walls are built from a material of higher thermal conductivity?

    Model answer

    The building cools more quickly, because energy is conducted out through the walls more readily.

  5. 5

    Two identical houses are heated to the same temperature, but one has thicker walls of the same material. Which cools more slowly?

    Model answer

    The house with the thicker walls.

  6. 6

    Two walls are the same thickness, one of brick and one of insulating foam. Which building cools more slowly?

    Model answer

    The one with foam walls, because foam has the lower thermal conductivity.

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