John put two identical skillets on his stove to cook breakfast. He put one skillet on a large burner and one on a small burner. This table shows how the temperature of each skillet changed over 5minutes.

Question

Skillet Initial temperature (°C) Final temperature (°C)
Skillet on the small burner 24 67
Skillet on the large burner 23 88
The next time John heats a skillet on the stove, he wants the skillet to warm up quickly. What should he do to maximize the rate of thermal energy transfer into the skillet?
Excellent!

put the skillet on the small burner
put the skillet on the large burner
either the rate of thermal energy transfer is the same whether the burner is small or large

Answer 1

To maximize the rate of thermal energy transfer into the skillet, John should put the skillet on the large burner.

From the data provided, the skillet on the large burner reached a higher final temperature (88°C) compared to the skillet on the small burner (67°C) over the same time period. This indicates that the large burner is capable of transferring thermal energy at a faster rate, resulting in a quicker increase in the skillet's temperature.