energy can be transferred by conduction convection and radiation in this video we'll concentrate on conduction and convection and in a separate video we'll look at radiation we group conduction and convection together because conduction and convection both need particles to transfer energy in solids energy is transferred by conduction the image shows a bar of metal being heated by a Bunsen burner at one end when you heat the object the particles vibrate more it's really important that you use the word more in any description because if you remember in a solid the particles are already vibrating so when you heat the object you need to state that the particles will vibrate more the particles collide with neighboring particles transferring energy so if this represents the regular arrangement of atoms in our solid metal bar as we're heating this end the atoms at this end will start to vibrate more they'll still be in a fixed position but they'll vibrate more they will collide with neighboring particles and transfer the energy along the rod until eventually if you were to hold the rod at this end it would be very very hot as the heat energy has been conducted through the metal materials can either be classed as conductors or insulators if you are a good conductor you are a poor insulator and vice versa conductors allow heat to be transferred easily whereas insulators do not all metals are good conductors and therefore poor insulators materials that are good insulators and therefore poor conductors include things such as air foam plastic rubber and wood metals are good conductors because they have a regular arrangement of atoms that are close together therefore when the atoms vibrate more they will autumn - click collide with any neighboring particles whereas insulators such as air and foam for example have particles that are much further apart therefore when they gain energy is more difficult for that energy to be transferred onto a neighboring particle because it is much further away and foam is like this because despite being a solid it is a material that is full of trapped air the second method of transferring energy using Pascal's is convection convection takes place in fluids so gases or liquids because the particles are free to move in gases and liquids in gases they're far apart and can move randomly in all directions and in liquids the particles are closer together but are still able to move and flow over each other in convection the particles near the heat source gain energy and move faster so these particles down here will gain more energy and start to move faster the particles move further apart and the gas or the liquid whatever you're talking about becomes less dense you must not say that the particles become less dense because the particles don't change in shape and size so we can only talk about the the medium the material that it's in becoming less dense so here I've put the particles move further apart and the gas or the liquid becomes less dense so if for this is air we are talking about we would say that the air becomes less dense or if it was water we'd say the water becomes less dense the particles rise shown by this arrow here and transfer energy to other particles at the top and because these particles have risen to the top of the system we then have cooler denser gas or liquid which falls to take its place this is called a convection current so we have a constant current of particles which are rising and falling and transferring energy whilst they do so to show conduction and convection in a simple application will look at heating some water on a stove as the pan is heated from the bottom the atoms in the bottom of the pan start to vibrate more they collide with neighboring particles and transfer energy all around the pan and also to the water the water inside the pan is heated by convection and you can see the convection currents forming in the water whilst the metal of the pan is a good conductor and will be extremely hot to touch I am able to remove the lid of the pan and also I'm able to pick up the pan using the handle because the grips are made out of a rubber insulating material that is a poor conductor of heat hi guys if you enjoyed that last video then please click on the screen to subscribe you can also find all my videos in one place at GCSE revision monkey comm if your teacher check out the key state 3 package at Science surgery comm it contains all of the revision monkey videos as well as loads more Key Stage 3 resources