Heat and temperature
Thermal image. © Barbara Sigge
Sense of heat
Our skin is covered with special nerve endings that give us a particular feeling of temperature when we make contact with a solid, liquid or gas. Our sense of heat enables us to detect small temperature differences. But we cannot use it to measure the actual temperature.
Using and understanding heat
Discoveries about the connections between temperature, heat and energy conversion have been crucial to the development of many scientific and technical applications. They are also important for understanding everyday phenomena such as the weather.