Heat is energy transferred; temperature is how hot something is. Drag the sliders below to heat two water beakers of different masses and watch the same energy produce different temperature rises, through Q = m·c·ΔT.
Pour the exact same amount of heat into two beakers of water and you might expect them to end up equally warm. They will not. When Beaker A mass is small and Beaker B mass is large, the identical energy lifts the little beaker far higher up the thermometer while the big one barely stirs. That gap is the whole lesson: heat and temperature are two separate ideas. Heat is the energy in joules you transfer; temperature (°C) is only how hot the water feels, set by the average kinetic energy of its particles.
The readout Q = m·c·ΔT ties them together. Rearranged, ΔT = Q/(m·c), so a bigger mass in the denominator means a smaller change in temperature for the same Q. Slide Temperature change up and watch Q climb, then split the same Q between unequal masses and compare. A large, cool tank can store far more thermal energy than a small, scalding cup, so a high reading never guarantees a lot of heat is present.
Adjust the Start temperature too and notice that energy always drains from the hotter body toward the cooler one until both settle at thermal equilibrium. Once you can predict each beaker's rise by eye, pin down real numbers with the specific heat calculator, then keep experimenting across the wider collection of physics simulations.
Heat is energy transferred between objects, measured in joules; temperature measures how hot something is, set by the average kinetic energy of its particles. A hotter object does not always contain more heat energy.
Because ΔT = Q/(m·c). For the same heat Q and the same material, a bigger mass gives a smaller temperature rise — the energy is shared among more particles.
Yes. A large cool tank of water can store far more thermal energy than a small, very hot cup, because the total energy depends on mass and specific heat, not just on temperature.
From the hotter object to the cooler one, until they reach the same temperature (thermal equilibrium). It never flows the other way on its own.