• @sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works
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    22 months ago

    Yes, you can cool water for the exact same reason that it heats up really fast.

    And yes, it kind of is like electricity, in fact, good conductors of electricity are generally good conductors of heat. Electrical conduction happens through transfer of electrons, so atoms that can easily gain/lose electrons conduct electricity really well. Heat conduction happens through kinetic energy transfer, and and free electrons can transfer that energy to adjacent atoms by moving between them (like they do with electrical energy). It’s a very similar mechanism.

    Water is a much better conductor of heat than air because it’s much more dense. So if you have a metal tank full of water, the heat is much more likely to be conducted through the water inside the tank than the air outside the tank. That’s why water cooling is so effective, it sucks the heat away from the hot component, transports it to a radiator, which then spreads out the water (dramatically increasing surface area) to maximize the effectiveness of transferring that energy to the air (more opportunities for the cooler air to collide with the warmer water molecules).

      • @sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works
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        2 months ago

        heat always moves upwards rather than down

        That’s just not true. Heat moves along the path of least resistance, not “up,” “up” just happens to generally be less resistance than “down” due to density differences in air.

        heat is atom speed and electricity is electrons jumping

        From your second link:

        In other words, heat is transferred by conduction when adjacent atoms vibrate against one another, or as electrons move from one atom to another.

        Density matters. Free electrons matter. But in short, metal and water conduct heat better than air, which means the heat transferred is more likely to go into the water than into the air. Certain metals conduct heat better than other metals, largely due to electrical conductivity.