To understand heat, we must first understand temperature. Here is a simple definition: “Temperature is a measure of the average kinetic energy of the particles in an object.”. If the particles of an object move faster, we say it is hotter. If they move slower, we say it is colder. It is that simple.
Of course, there are more complex definitions for temperature, such as “The rate that internal energy changes with respect to entropy.”. But we don’t need such hard descriptions to answer the question “Why is the Earth heated unevenly?”.
Heat is something completely different than temperature. It is the transfer of kinetic energy from one object to another. If an object gets heated, its temperature rises.
An object cannot have any measure of heat. Heat is merely the transfer of energy. Let’s think of a glass of water that is sitting at the table inside of your living room. It will have the same temperature as your living room. But it won’t have any measure of heat. If the temperature of your living room rises, the temperature of the glass of water will also rise. That will only happen because there is a heat transfer from your living room to the glass of water.
So the question “Why is the Earth heated unevenly?” actually means why do some parts of Earth receive more energy than others. The question doesn’t have any relation to temperature. If you are wondering why “Some parts of Earth have different temperatures than others?”, we will slightly answer that question as well at the end of the article.