Question #a1e94
1 Answer
Dec 1, 2017
All convection currents arise due to the same mechanism (but never heard of it used in Biology so hope this is ok)
Explanation:
A heat source transfer thermal energy to a fluid (either a liquid or a gas) causing the temperature to rise.
Temperature is a measure of the average kinetic energy of the particles, so they move faster.
Faster moving particles take up more space, but have the same mass, so their density (mass/volume) falls.
Because they are less dense, they rise through cooler denser fluids above them, setting up a rotation which replaces the warmer fluid with cooler fluid.
The process continues until the heat source runs out of energy, or all the fluid is at the same temperature. Hope this will do for you!
