ASPECt
Energy: Forms, Transformation, Transfer, and Conservation
When air or water moves to another location, it can change the temperature of the air or water at that location.
Item RG019004: The air at the other end of a room gets warmer when a fan blows warmer air across a room.
The air in the room pictured is cool. A fire is warming the air near the fireplace. There is a fan next to the fireplace.
If a person turns on the fan to blow the warmer air across the room, will the air at the other end of the room get any warmer? Why or why not?
- No, because fans are only used to cool a room, they cannot be used to warm a room.
- No, because all of the air in a room is the same temperature, a blowing fan will not change the air temperature.
- Yes, because a fan can blow warmer air across a room, which makes the other end of the room warmer.
- It depends on the temperature of the air being blown by the fan. The air at the other end of a room will get warmer only if the air near the fire is a lot warmer than the air at the other end of the room.
CHA modified from CL15-2
- Distribution of Responses
- Scale Score for Item Difficulty
(200[Easy]-800[Difficult]) - 536
- Students Responding Correctly
| Group | Correct | Total | Percent |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 1252 | 4673 | 27% |
| Grades | |||
| 4–5 | 233 | 850 | 27% |
| 6–8 | 532 | 1961 | 27% |
| 9–12 | 487 | 1862 | 26% |
| Gender | |||
| Male | 694 | 2148 | 32% |
| Female | 534 | 2418 | 22% |
| Primary Language | |||
| English | 1139 | 4246 | 27% |
| Other | 80 | 293 | 27% |
- Disciplinary Core Ideas
- PS3.B Energy is spontaneously transferred out of hotter regions or objects and into colder ones.
- NRC Framework
- Heating is another process for transferring energy. Heat transfer occurs when two objects or systems are at different temperatures. Energy moves out of higher temperature objects and into lower temperature ones, cooling the former and heating the latter. This transfer happens in three different ways—by conduction within solids, by the flow of liquid or gas (convection), and by radiation, which can travel across space.