Question

1. A block of wood and a block of metal are both sitting outside at night. The block of metal feels colder to the touch than the block of wood. Does this mean that the metal is actually at a lower temperature than the wood? Explain.
2. Explain how boiling a pot of water on the stove is an example of both conduction and convection.
3. What methods of heat transfer are involved when heat flows through a glass windowpane? Explain your answer.
4. What particular characteristic of an object most strongly determines the rate of radiant heat transfer to and from that object?
5. What role does Earth’s atmosphere play in maintaining the planet’s surface temperature?

Answer 1

• Metal is a good conductor of heat as compared with wood so it extracts the heat from our body more quickly than wood so it appears colder than wood.
• In boiling water over stove, first heat will be conducted from stove to the water using conduction of heat than it will spread throughout the water using convection.
• Heat passes through a window pane by conduction process.
• Emissivity of an object determines the rate of heat radiated from and to an object.
• Atmosphere doesn't absorb the heat radiation (short wave) coming from the Sun but when this radiation is reflected from the surface of Earth, it becomes long wave so now atmosphere absorbs it and maintains the temperature of atmosphere.