Which of the following statements is true regarding conduction?

The statement that conduction requires direct physical contact to transfer heat is accurate. Conduction is a heat transfer process that occurs when two objects at different temperatures come into direct contact with each other. The heat flows from the hotter object to the cooler one through molecular collisions, where vibration or movement of molecules in the hotter substance transfers energy to the molecules in the cooler substance.

In contrast to other heat transfer methods such as convection, which involves fluid movement, and radiation, which does not require a medium, conduction is fundamentally based on the contact between materials. This distinction highlights the necessity of physical contact for heat transfer to occur via conduction, making this statement the correct one in the context of the question.