What is Heat conductors and insulators? — Physics

Definition 34.4 Primary & Middle School Physics · Chapter 34 — Heat and Insulation

Stuffs differ wildly in how fast they let heat flow through them. A heat conductor is a fast lane — metals above all. A heat insulator is a slow lane: wood, wool, plastic, feathers — and the champion, still air, trapped so it cannot swirl. (The words are borrowed on purpose from electricity’s conductors and insulators; the two properties often, but not always, go together.)

A frosty morning on the playground: metal slide and wooden bench spent the same night at the same temperature — yet only one of them will bite your skin.

The cooling race, drawn: two mugs of 50\, C water in a 20\, C room. The wool cannot stop heat’s escape — but it slows it beautifully. — The cooling race, drawn: two mugs of $50\,{}^{\circ}\mathrm{C}$ water in a $20\,{}^{\circ}\mathrm{C}$ room. The wool cannot stop heat’s escape — but it slows it beautifully.

Examples

Example 34.5 (The slide mystery, solved)

The metal slide and the wooden bench spent the night at the same chilly temperature — the thermometer swore it long ago. Touch them: your hand is warmer than both, so heat flows from you into each. But the metal is a fast lane — it whisks your heat away in a rush, and that rush is what “icy” feels like. The wood takes your heat only in a trickle: barely cool. Your skin was never measuring temperature — it measures the speed of its own heat loss. Case closed, after four years.

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Examples

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