An example of transient conduction that does not end with steady-state conduction, but rather no conduction, occurs when a hot copper ball is dropped into oil at a low temperature. Here, the temperature field within the object begins to change as a function of time, as the heat is removed from the metal, and the interest lies in analyzing this spatial change of temperature within the object over time until all gradients disappear entirely (the ball has reached the same temperature as the oil). Mathematically, this condition is also approached exponentially; in theory, it takes infinite time, but in practice, it is over, for all intents and purposes, in a much shorter period. At the end of this process with no heat sink but the internal parts of the ball (which are finite), there is no steady-state heat conduction to reach. Such a state never occurs in this situation, but rather the end of the process is when there is no heat conduction at all.