This is because Hg is an abbreviation of the Latin name of the element, which was hydrargium. With this name the Greeks were referring to the fact that mercury is a silvery liquid at room temperature, rather than a solid like other metals.
We've looked at the three types of heat transfer. Conduction and convection rely on temperature differences; radiation does, too, but with radiation the absolute temperature is important.
The transfer occurs in a process which changes the state of each system. Thermodynamics recognises three categories (mechanisms or modes) of such transfers: 1  Heat [ing], which can occur via conduction, thermal electromagnetic radiation, and other mechanisms.