2 boxes sit below the header Ralph's Bricks. A box labeled Ralph's Top Brick contains 4 low energy molecules, each marked 8. Below is another box labeled Ralph's Bottom Brick containing 4 high energy molecules, each marked 16. 2 more boxes sit below the header Sheila's Bricks. The box labeled Sheila's Top Brick contains 9 low energy molecules, each marked 8. Below is another box labeled Sheila's Bottom Brick containing 4 high energy molecules, each marked 16.

Question

2 boxes sit below the header Ralph's Bricks. A box labeled Ralph's Top Brick contains 4 low energy molecules, each marked 8. Below is another box labeled Ralph's Bottom Brick containing 4 high energy molecules, each marked 16. 2 more boxes sit below the header Sheila's Bricks. The box labeled Sheila's Top Brick contains 9 low energy molecules, each marked 8. Below is another box labeled Sheila's Bottom Brick containing 4 high energy molecules, each marked 16.
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11. Ralph and Sheila are at a construction site and they are stacking bricks. The diagram above shows the bricks before they touch. Use the information in the diagram to answer the question.

After the bricks have been touching for a while, whose top brick will be cooler?

Responses

a
Ralph’s top brick will be cooler than Sheila's top brick, because less energy has to transfer for Ralph’s brick’s molecules to reach the same temperature as the molecules of his bottom brick.
Ralph’s top brick will be cooler than Sheila's top brick, because less energy has to transfer for Ralph’s brick’s molecules to reach the same temperature as the molecules of his bottom brick.

b
Sheila's top brick will be cooler than Ralph’s top brick, because Sheila’s started with more total energy, so less energy had to transfer for both her bricks to reach the same total energy.
Sheila's top brick will be cooler than Ralph’s top brick, because Sheila’s started with more total energy, so less energy had to transfer for both her bricks to reach the same total energy.

c
Sheila’s top brick will be cooler than Ralph’s top brick, because the energy that transferred to Sheila’s was spread out over more molecules.
Sheila’s top brick will be cooler than Ralph’s top brick, because the energy that transferred to Sheila’s was spread out over more molecules.

d
Both will be the same temperature, because both bottom bricks had the same amount of energy to transfer and the molecules in the top bricks started with the same energy.

GPT-4o mini · Answer

To determine which top brick will be cooler after they have been touching and energy has transferred, we need to analyze the energy content of the bricks.

Ralph's Setup:

Ralph's Top Brick: 4 low energy molecules, each marked 8 (Total energy = 4 * 8 = 32)
Ralph's Bottom Brick: 4 high energy molecules, each marked 16 (Total energy = 4 * 16 = 64)

Sheila's Setup:

Sheila's Top Brick: 9 low energy molecules, each marked 8 (Total energy = 9 * 8 = 72)
Sheila's Bottom Brick: 4 high energy molecules, each marked 16 (Total energy = 4 * 16 = 64)

Analysis of Energy Transfer:

Ralph’s Top Brick has less total energy (32) compared to Sheila's Top Brick (72).
When energy transfers from the bottom bricks to the top bricks, the total energy available for Ralph's transfer from his bottom brick (64) minus the top brick's energy (32) means that 32 units of energy can be transferred.
On the other hand, Sheila's Bottom Brick can transfer energy (64) to Sheila's Top Brick (72) but also has more initial energy in the top brick.

Conclusion: Since both tops started with a different amount of total energy, energy transferred to Sheila’s Top Brick is spread across more molecules (9), which means that each molecule in Sheila's Top Brick receives less energy on average than each molecule in Ralph's Top Brick.

Considering these points, the most accurate conclusion is:

Response c: Sheila’s top brick will be cooler than Ralph’s top brick because the energy that transferred to Sheila’s was spread out over more molecules.