full transcript
From the Ted Talk by Anna Rothschild: How does an air conditioner actually work?
Unscramble the Blue Letters
Heat pumps rely on the same technology as air ctronnodieis. And in fact, they often double as air conditioners, hieantg your home in the winter and cloiong it in the smuemr.
How? Air conditioners take heat from your home and move it outside. To do so, they harness the second law of thermodynamics. That’s the one that says that heat will always move from a htoter object to a colder one.
When you turn on your A/C, a fan blows the hot air from your home over coils containing a stauncbse called a refrigerant.
A refrigerant’s molecules turn to gas at relatively low tuermparetes, so as it collects terhmal energy from the hot air in your home, it boils. Then, it passes into a compressor, which pushes the gas molecules closer together, heating them up even more.
Open Cloze
Heat pumps rely on the same technology as air ____________. And in fact, they often double as air conditioners, _______ your home in the winter and _______ it in the ______.
How? Air conditioners take heat from your home and move it outside. To do so, they harness the second law of thermodynamics. That’s the one that says that heat will always move from a ______ object to a colder one.
When you turn on your A/C, a fan blows the hot air from your home over coils containing a _________ called a refrigerant.
A refrigerant’s molecules turn to gas at relatively low ____________, so as it collects _______ energy from the hot air in your home, it boils. Then, it passes into a compressor, which pushes the gas molecules closer together, heating them up even more.
Solution
- conditioners
- hotter
- temperatures
- cooling
- heating
- thermal
- summer
- substance
Original Text
Heat pumps rely on the same technology as air conditioners. And in fact, they often double as air conditioners, heating your home in the winter and cooling it in the summer.
How? Air conditioners take heat from your home and move it outside. To do so, they harness the second law of thermodynamics. That’s the one that says that heat will always move from a hotter object to a colder one.
When you turn on your A/C, a fan blows the hot air from your home over coils containing a substance called a refrigerant.
A refrigerant’s molecules turn to gas at relatively low temperatures, so as it collects thermal energy from the hot air in your home, it boils. Then, it passes into a compressor, which pushes the gas molecules closer together, heating them up even more.
Frequently Occurring Word Combinations
ngrams of length 2
| collocation |
frequency |
| heat pumps |
9 |
| heat pump |
3 |
| air conditioners |
2 |
| fan blows |
2 |
| hot air |
2 |
| thermal energy |
2 |
Important Words
- air
- blows
- boils
- called
- closer
- coils
- colder
- collects
- compressor
- conditioners
- cooling
- double
- energy
- fact
- fan
- gas
- harness
- heat
- heating
- home
- hot
- hotter
- law
- molecules
- move
- object
- passes
- pumps
- pushes
- refrigerant
- rely
- substance
- summer
- technology
- temperatures
- thermal
- thermodynamics
- turn
- winter