The discussion of heat transfer has been structured around some everyday examples such as the cooling of a hot mug of coffee and the warming of a cold can of pop. The heat transfer continues until the two objects have reached thermal equilibrium and are at the same temperature. It is the temperature difference between the two neighboring objects that causes this heat transfer. You have hopefully adopted an understanding of heat as a flow of energy from a higher temperature object to a lower temperature object.
The more the particles vibrate, translate and rotate, the greater the temperature of the object. Temperature is a measure of the average amount of kinetic energy possessed by the particles in a sample of matter. These motions give the particles kinetic energy. You should be developing a model of matter as consisting of particles which vibrate (wiggle about a fixed position), translate (move from one location to another) and even rotate (revolve about an imaginary axis). If you have been following along since the beginning of this lesson, then you have been developing a progressively sophisticated understanding of temperature and heat.
