if you leave a door open does this allow cold to enter the house or heat to escape?

Question

does cold draw heat or visa versa?

Answer 1

Everything on this planet tries to equal itself out with it's neighbor. Cold wants to move into where it is warmer. As warm air is heated up it becomes less dense and rises. This leaves a void near the surface. Now cold air is more dense so it will sneak into the place where warm air used to be.
So if it is warmer inside than it is outside, yes your warm air will try to escape to even out the cold air outside and vice versa.
That's why momma always says "Close that door, what where you born in a barn!?"

Answer 2

Well, if the door is left open long enough, the temperature inside the house will achieve equilibrium with the temperature outside the house: i.e., they'll both be at the same temp eventually.

If the house is completely airtight, and it's warmer in the house than outside, presumably the air pressure inside the house is higher than the pressure outside. This would cause the warmer air to go out at a faster rate than the cold air coming in, until the pressures are at equilibrium. Vice versa if the house was colder inside than the outside air temperature.

Either way, eventually the temps inside and outside will be the same.

Answer 3

Heat moves toward cold. This has nothing to do with warm air rising, that is a matter of gravity since warm air is less dense than cold, it rises. There is the matter of pressure difference between indoors and outdoors to consider as well as wind conditions. The cold air entering is simply replacing the warm air which escapes.

The zeroth law of thermodynamics begins with a simple definition of thermodynamic equilibrium . It is observed that some property of an object, like the pressure in a volume of gas, the length of a metal rod, or the electrical conductivity of a wire, can change when the object is heated or cooled. If two of these objects are brought into physical contact there is initially a change in the property of both objects. But, eventually, the change in property stops and the objects are said to be in thermal, or thermodynamic, equilibrium. Thermodynamic equilibrium leads to the large scale definition of temperature. When two objects are in thermal equilibrium they are said to have the same temperature. During the process of reaching thermal equilibrium, heat, which is a form of energy, is transferred between the objects. The details of the process of reaching thermal equilibrium are described in the first and second laws of thermodynamics.

Answer 4

From your study of physics, you know that there is only heat or absence of heat. When you leave a door open and the inside temperature is different from the outside temperature, heat will flow as it needs to equalize the temperatures.

In the summer, heat will enter the cooler house. In the winter, heat will leave the warmer house.

Answer 5

Heat rises, and cold air sinks because it is more dense. When you open a door to a warm house and it is cold outside, the density of the cold air pushes out the hot air, and lets it in, while the cold air comes inside.

Answer 6

Cold is what you get, when molecules stop moving around. Or basically lose thier energy.

Thik of it as the cold is litereally sucking the life out of heat.

However, when you open a door, you are actually allowing COLD air IN, which in return removes the energy from the WARM air. So it is probably most accurate to say that you are letting the cold in.

-JMB

Answer 7

Cold air is denser than warmer air. So, the cold air will flow into the room at and around the ground level. At the same time warm air will escape around the top area of the door. You wind up with a circular movement of air. The room will 'fill' with cold air.

Answer 8

Both.

Heat always travels to cold; however, in the case of gases, temperature also causes the air to move & mix, just like the weather.

Answer 9

From my old physics class, the cold air enters the house. Cold always travels to hot. Hard to comprehend sometimes, but true.

Answer 10

Cold is just the absence of heat, so heat escapes.