Engineering: The challenge of temperature

Engineering is about extending the horizons of society by solving technical problems, ranging from the meeting of basic human needs for food and shelter to the generation of wealth by trade. This free course, Engineering: The challenge of temperature, looks at the impact of changes in temperature on a variety of objects and looks at the problem of how to boil water.

• Introduction
• Learning outcomes
• 1 Temperature – problem or solution?
• 1 Temperature – problem or solution?
• 2 Getting into hot water
• 2 Getting into hot water
• 2.1 Boiling water
• 2.2 Thermal effects in outline
• 2.3 How things change with temperature
• 2.4 Summary of Section 2
• 3 Gradual temperature effects
• 3 Gradual temperature effects
• 3.1 Modelling properties
• 3.2 Room to rattle: modelling thermal expansion
• 3.3 Thermal stresses
• 3.4 Summary of Section 3
• 4 Accelerating temperature effects
• 4 Accelerating temperature effects
• 4.1 Characteristics of processes activated by thermal energy
• 4.2 Energy distribution
• 4.2.1 Quantifying thermal energy
• 4.2.2 The significance of the average energy
• 4.2.3 The significance of the distribution of energies
• 4.3 Thermally activated processes
• 4.3.1 Arrhenius's law
• 4.3.2 Competing processes
• 4.3.3 Getting at the activation energy
• 4.4 Summary of Section 4
• 5 Sudden temperature effects
• 5 Sudden temperature effects
• 5.1 Sudden changes
• 5.2 What's in a phase?
• 5.3 Order and chaos
• 5.4 Critical modelling
• 5.5 Summary of Section 5
• 6 The water boiler again
• 6 The water boiler again
• 6.1 Review
• 6.2 Refining the specification
• 6.3 Summary of Section 6
• Conclusion
• Acknowledgements