Question

You walk into a room in your house and notice it is very cold. You walk over to the thermostat and notice that it is set at 64 degrees, so you turn the dial up on the thermostat to 77 degrees Fahrenheit. Based on convection, how will you heat up that cold dwelling place of yours?

A) Heat will radiate from the thermostat.
B) Warm air will rise, and cold air will sink, creating a convection current.
C) Heat will be conducted through the walls.
D) The room will heat up instantly.

Answer 1

By turning up the thermostat, you initiate convection, where warm air rises and cold air sinks, creating a convection current that distributes heat energy throughout the room.

Step-by-step explanation:

When you turn the thermostat up from 64 degrees to 77 degrees Fahrenheit, you initiate a process of heating your room through convection. Convection involves the movement of air within the room where the warmer air will rise, and the colder air will sink, creating what is known as a convection current. This process, supported by a home's heating system such as a gravity furnace, allows the air that has been heated near the heat source to expand, become less dense, and rise. As this air moves away from the source, it cools, contracts, and becomes denser, causing it to sink towards the floor. This creates a continuous cycle of air movement, which helps to uniformly distribute the heat energy throughout the room, effectively warming it up over time.