thermal conduction

Table of Contents

Introduction References & Edit History Quick Facts & Related Topics

Videos

Understand temperature, thermal energy and how temperature affects the skin

How heat is transferred and measured

Read Next

Muscle injury. Man with sprain thigh muscles. Athlete in sports shorts clutching his thigh muscles after pulling or straining them while jogging on the beach.

Why Does Heat Relax Your Muscles?

Chlorophyll pigment in chloroplasts within plant cells. Microscopic organelles photosynthesis green

What did Jan Ingenhousz discover about photosynthesis?

Discover

Illustration for Demystified "How Dangerous is Quicksand"

How Deadly Is Quicksand?

Candles Burning On Table In Church

What Is the Most Widely Practiced Religion in the World?

Queen Elizabeth II addresses at opening of Parliament. (Date unknown on photo, but may be 1958, the first time the opening of Parliament was filmed.)

All 119 References in “We Didn’t Start the Fire,” Explained

July, 2006, Launch of Space Shuttle Discovery STS-121. See attached for full caption information.

Will Light-Speed Space Travel Ever Be Possible?

New Zealand. Political/Physical map. Includes locator.

Where Is “Old Zealand”?

A Factory Interior, watercolor, pen and gray ink, graphite, and white goache on wove paper by unknown artist, c. 1871-91; in the Yale Center for British Art. Industrial Revolution England

Inventors and Inventions of the Industrial Revolution

Space race (1957-1969) infographic between United States (U.S.) and Russia. America, Soviet Union, U.S.S.R., space exploration

Timeline of the Space Race, 1957–69

thermal conduction: Facts & Related Content

Written and fact-checked by The Information Architects of Encyclopaedia Britannica

Facts

Also Known As	heat conduction • conduction

Videos

Understand temperature, thermal energy and how temperature affects the skin

How heat is transferred and measured

See All Videos →

Topics

thermal conductivity Fourier’s law of heat conduction heat heat transfer transport phenomenon viscosity diffusion tunneling latent heat condensation enthalpy convection vaporization heat capacity caloric theory

Key People

Joseph Fourier

Joseph Fourier

French mathematician

Ingenhousz, detail of an engraving

Jan Ingenhousz

Dutch scientist

James David Forbes

Scottish physicist