Conduction along rods sim
Heat is conducted along each rod from the hot end: the particles there vibrate more and pass energy on to their neighbours, and in metals free electro
Conduction along rods · covers the GCSE, IGCSE, O-Level topic
What the sim shows
Heat is conducted along each rod from the hot end: the particles there vibrate more and pass energy on to their neighbours, and in metals free electrons carry it much faster. The rod is also losing heat to the air all along, so it warms only so far. Where the rod reaches 50 °C the wax melts and the pin drops. Copper is the best conductor here: its first pin drops after 4 s and all 5 drop. Aluminium is close behind, iron drops only 2, and glass, a poor conductor (an insulator), drops none. The rods are 6 mm across and stick out 20 cm. Shown 10 times faster than real time.
- Rod colour: grey cool, red hot
- Below: temperature along each rod
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