Conduction

Whenever the molecules of a working substance, whether liquid, solid, or vapor, are restrained so that no appreciable relative translatory motion occurs among them, the kinetic energies of the various molecules will be largely due to vibration. If a temperature difference exists in the working substance, some adjacent molecules will necessarily be at different temperatures hence will possess different degrees of vibratory motion. In this case the molecule which is vibrating most rapidly will transfer some of its motion to the slower-moving molecule next to it, the one then undergoing a decrease in temperature and the other an increase. In this way, thermal energy will be transferred by the mechanism of conduction from the region of higher to the region of lower temperature. The process will continue spontaneously until the entire system has reached a uniform equilibrium temperature.

In contrast to radiation, conduction only occurs when a working substance is present and when the molecules of that working substance retain practically fixed positions with respect to one another. Thus, conductive heat flow would always occur through solids, but would take place in liquids and vapors only if special conditions prevented or greatly reduced the normal translatory motion of the molecules within these materials.