[AndyJackson]

No, it is thermal insulation. It works on the basis that acoustic waves in the underlying material do not couple to the isolating layer because of a mismatch in acoustic impedance. It is the same as sound waves in air reflect off of a concrete wall with little coupling to the wall (which is why it is hard to here a conversation on the other side of a wall that you could clearly hear just a few inches away in air on the other side of the wall. Likewise vibrations in a solid material do not couple well to the air.

Thermal waves in solid materials are just a random jumble of small amplitude incoherent sound waves in the material

[seowulf]

Interesting.

I like your description much better.

On the atomic level, as the electrons move through the orbitals, is the energy infrared or friction or both?

[Cold Heart]

I would think if they don’t provide heat dissipation things will get hotter inside and overheat the particular component.