Tufts OpenCourseware
Author: Fulcrum Institute Development Team

Heating and Cooling a Black Cylinder

Examine each segment of the temperature change curve

  • Identify any of the 7 common patterns of temperature change that you find.
  • For each pattern you find, use your understanding of energy transfer to explain it. In your explanation, describe how you think that energy is absorbed and emitted, and how you think that the presence of matter might affect energy transfer.
  • Reexamine Roger Tobin's data . Note any insight or questions that it raises about the test data.
  • Keep an eye out for thermal equilibrium. If you find it, when did it occur and how do you explain it?