natural convection

(noun)

A method for heat transport. A fluid surrounding a heat source receives heat, becomes less dense and rises. The surrounding, cooler fluid then moves to replace it. This cooler fluid is then heated and the process continues, forming a convection current.

Related Terms

Examples of natural convection in the following topics:

  • Convection

    • Example: Calculating Heat Transfer by Convection: Convection of Air Through the Walls of a House.
    • Convection is driven by large-scale flow of matter.
    • While convection is usually more complicated than conduction, we can describe convection and perform some straightforward, realistic calculations of its effects.
    • Natural convection is driven by buoyant forces: hot air rises because density decreases as temperature increases.
    • Cumulus clouds are caused by water vapor that rises because of convection.

  • Diffusion

    • Thus, diffusion should not be confused with convection or advection, which are other transport mechanisms that use bulk motion to move particles from one place to another.

  • Radiation

    • Yet the space between Earth and the Sun is largely empty, without any possibility of heat transfer by convection or conduction.
    • Convection transfers energy away from the observers as hot air rises, while conduction is negligibly slow here.

  • Infrared Waves

    • Unlike heat transmitted by thermal conduction or thermal convection, radiation can propagate through a vacuum.

  • Overview of Heat

    • Convection is the heat transfer by the macroscopic movement of a fluid.

  • Geomagnetism

    • The motion of the molten outer iron core is sustained by convection, or motion driven by buoyancy.

  • Satellites

    • There are also 84 known natural satellites of trans-Neptunian objects.
    • Planets around other stars are likely to have natural satellites as well, although none have yet been observed.
    • Of the inner planets, Mercury and Venus have no natural satellites; Earth has one large natural satellite, known as the Moon; and Mars has two tiny natural satellites, Phobos and Deimos.
    • The seven largest natural satellites in the Solar System (those bigger than 2,500 km across) are Jupiter's Galilean moons (Ganymede, Callisto, Io, and Europa), Saturn's moon Titan, Earth's moon, and Neptune's captured natural satellite Triton.
    • Nineteen natural satellites are large enough to be round, and one, Saturn's Titan, has a substantial atmosphere.

  • Wave Nature of Matter Causes Quantization

    • The wave nature of matter is responsible for the quantization of energy levels in bound systems.
    • To consider why wave nature of matter in bound systems leads to quantization, let's consider an example in classical mechanics.
    • The wave nature of matter is responsible for the quantization of energy levels in bound systems.
    • Explain relationship between the wave nature of matter and the quantization of energy levels in bound systems

  • Natural Radioactivity

    • Detectable amounts of radioactive material occurs naturally in soil, rocks, water, air, and vegetation.
    • Radioactive material is found throughout nature.
    • Detectable amounts occur naturally in soil, rocks, water, air, and vegetation.
    • The worldwide average natural dose to humans is about 2.4 millisieverts (mSv) per year.
    • Bar chart of average annual dosages from natural radiation sources for major European countries

  • Nuclear Stability

    • Also, only four naturally occurring, radioactive odd-odd nuclides have a half-life greater than a billion years:
    • Radionuclides occur naturally but can also be produced artificially.
    • All elements form a number of radionuclides, although the half-lives of many are so short that they are not observed in nature.
    • For every chemical element, many radioisotopes that do not occur in nature (due to short half-lives or the lack of a natural production source) have been produced artificially.