 Conduction is the transfer of heat energy by the kinetic motion of atoms in a substance. Remember that all atoms have motion of some sort. This is true even for atoms that make up a solid. In this animation, note that the atoms in the bar of metal are vibrating slowly due to their relatively low temperature. In real life, I might add, atoms are vibrating at tremendous speeds, so this is just a representation. Now watch what happens when I slide the bar of metal into the furnace. Notice that as the metal heats up, the atoms at the end of the rod begin to vibrate faster. The faster vibrating atoms transfer some of their energy to the slower adjacent atoms. Thus, the slower atoms also vibrate faster, giving them a higher temperature. This is conduction. I should also mention that conduction works to cool an object as well. When a slower vibrating atom is next to a faster vibrating one, we've seen that the slower atom takes some of the energy from the fast atom. This makes the slow atom vibrate faster, but it also slows down the faster vibrating atom, cooling it. If there are many, many more cooler atoms than warmer ones, then the net effect of the energy transfer is to cool the warmer atoms back to a temperature equal to its surroundings.