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Bridge hot water and cold with a metal bar. Which metal carries heat best?
Heat Transfer lab · Last updated: 16 October 2026
Bridge hot water and cold with a metal bar. Which metal carries heat best? In this 3D lab, you compare bars of different metals and watch the cold side warm up. It explains why pans have copper bases and plastic handles, and how heat always moves from hot to cold.
What you'll discover
- Heat flows by itself from a hotter place to a colder one until both reach the same temperature.
- Some metals, such as copper and aluminium, conduct heat much faster than others, such as steel.
- Non-metals such as wood and plastic are poor conductors, which makes them good insulators.
The science in plain words
Heat is energy moving from a hotter object to a colder one because of a difference in temperature. It always flows that way on its own, never from cold to hot, and it keeps flowing until the two are at the same temperature. There are three ways heat travels: conduction through solids, convection by moving liquids and gases, and radiation, which can even cross empty space.
In this lab, heat moves along the metal bar by conduction. The particles at the hot end vibrate faster and pass energy to their neighbours. Metals are especially good at this because they contain loosely held electrons that can roam through the metal and carry energy quickly from the hot end to the cold end. That is why metals feel cold to the touch: they draw heat away from your hand rapidly.
Metals differ a great deal. Silver is the best conductor of heat among common metals, closely followed by copper, then gold and aluminium. Iron and steel conduct heat several times more slowly, and stainless steel is slower still. A thicker or shorter bar also carries heat faster than a thin or long one. Cooks use these differences: copper or aluminium bases spread heat evenly across a pan, while handles of wood or plastic, which are insulators, stay cool enough to hold.
Where it fits
Common questions
Which metal conducts heat the best?
Among common metals, silver conducts heat best, with copper a very close second. Aluminium and gold are also good conductors, while iron and steel are much slower. Copper is used for many pans and heat exchangers because it conducts well and costs far less than silver.
Why do metal spoons get hot in tea?
Metals are good conductors of heat. The part of the spoon in the hot tea passes energy along the metal to the handle, partly through loosely held electrons that roam easily through it. A wooden or plastic spoon stays cool because those materials conduct heat poorly.
What are the three ways heat travels?
Heat travels by conduction, convection and radiation. Conduction passes heat through solids by contact, convection carries it by moving currents in liquids and gases, and radiation sends it as invisible waves, which is how the Sun's warmth crosses space to reach Earth.
Related labs
- States of Matter: Solid, liquid, gas: the same molecules, just jiggling harder.
- Greenhouse Effect: How does a little CO₂ in the air keep the whole planet warmer?
- Diffusion: A drop of dye in still jelly: how does it spread with nothing stirring it?
See all physics labs or every Taz science lab.
Try it yourself
The Heat Transfer lab is one of the interactive 3D science labs inside Taz. Change one thing, predict what will happen, then run it and watch. Labs open after you sign in.