Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

Hello guys , i seem to get confused on heat transfer ... electron in exited stated will go back randomly on lower energy state emiting a photon which some electron can absorb . Thats one way of transfering heat energy but then it comes the conduction which is explained as whole atoms just bumping into each other transfering their kinetic energy but i know that on atomic level nothing really touches anything else , and their only interaction is throught the EM force ? So i dont understand first can the atomic nucleus some how transfer it's kinetic energy to another nucleus without messing with the electrons and also is the nucleus kinetic energy releated to the electrons of the atom , some how increasing when the electrons are in exited state ? How can an atom transfer it's energy to another atom if the EM radiation only acts on the electrons ?

Hi u4eniq,
Is this in relation to a particular science project please? If so, please give us a little more detail regarding what you are working on please.

As a starting point, here's some reading material from one of the science buddies experiment:
https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... background

Hope this helps.
Please let us know if there's anything else we can do to help.
Willey

From what I've gathered, you are investigating heat conduction? Whole atoms don't really bump into each other, but in heat conduction heat energy does pass between particles. In conduction, the electrons can leave their respective atoms, leaving behind charged metal ions. The ions then pack in closely and vibrate faster depending on the amount of energy (heat). The energy spreads to cooler parts of the metal until the whole object reaches thermal equilibrium (the whole thing is the same temperature).
If I am mistaken in my interpretation of your question, or you need additional explanation please leave a reply.

Matt

Thanks for the reply guys, i'm confused because one way of tranfering heat is through radiation (electron in exited state goes back to normal state and emites a photon) The other described way is through conduction (atomic collisions) , thing is when you get deeper into it atoms dont really colide they dont even come close to toching each other because of the Electromagnetic force . what i dont get is that photons are said to be the carriers of the electromagnetic force so in a way electromagnetic force is possible because charged particles are exchanging photons ... which is the same as the radiation . However when i looked more into quantum physics i saw that radiation is exchanging of real photons while electromgnetic force is exchanging of virtual photons . Its called Quantum field theory , but it's way out of my reach to understand at this moment
P.S. not a science project , just curriocity