I was thinking about Fourier's Law in heat transfer today and
for some reason I am just not understanding the relationships it
gives us. Fourier's tells us that if the heat transfer rate is
kept constant, then a larger thermal conductivity provides a
smaller temperature gradient. I am confused about the physical
reason behind this or I am just misunderstanding the definition
of thermal conductivity. I thought that since thermal
conductivity is ease of heat transfer through a material then a
high thermal conductivity would mean heat is easily transferred
so one side of the material is at a much temperature than the
other and a large temperature gradient is created. In fact, this
is actually the opposite