Touch the top of the stove after it has been on and it feels hot. Hold an ice cube in your hand and it feels cold. Why? The particles of matter in a hot object are moving much faster than the particles of matter in a cold object. An object’s kinetic energy is the energy due to motion. The particles of matter that make up the hot stove have a greater amount of kinetic energy than those in the ice cube.
Temperature is a measure of the average kinetic energy of the particles in matter. In everyday usage, temperature indicates a measure of how hot or cold an object is. Temperature is an important parameter in chemistry. When a substance changes from solid to liquid, it is because there was an increase in the temperature of the material. Chemical reactions usually proceed faster if the temperature is increased. Many unstable materials (such as enzymes) will be viable longer at lower temperatures.
