Two identical refrigerators in a restaurant kitchen lost power. The door of one fridge was slightly open, and the door of the other fridge was closed. This table shows how the temperature of each refrigerator changed over 10minutes.

Question

Refrigerator Initial temperature (°C) Final temperature (°C)
Refrigerator with its door closed 3.8 5.2
Refrigerator with its door open 3.8 10.8
during this time, thermal energy was transferred from ? to ?
A. the surroundings...each refrigerator
B. each refrigerator... the surroundings

Answer 1

During the 10 minutes of power loss, thermal energy was transferred from each refrigerator to the surroundings. This is evident from the increase in temperature for both refrigerators.

The refrigerator with the door closed maintained a lower temperature than the one with the door open, but both experienced an increase in temperature due to heat transfer from the inside of the refrigerators to their surroundings.

So the correct answer is:

B. each refrigerator... the surroundings.