In a very old tale, a nymph, a simple imaginary woodland creature, is walking through the forest in a snowstorm. She meets a traveler wandering lost and cold. The nymph feels sorry for the man and invites him to her home for lunch. The man accepts, then sits by the nymph’s fire, blowing on his fingers to warm them. The nymph asks the man what he is doing. She’s very impressed when she hears the man can warm himself that way. Lunch is served. The man blows on his soup and tells the nymph that he is cooling it down. The nymph is astonished. How can the same mouth, she asks, blow both hot and cold? Angered at the man’s double dealing, she drives him back out into the forest. Because the nymph is imaginary, and the tale is set in a long-ago time, the nymph does not know about the relationship between kinetic and thermal energy. How could analyzing that relationship have helped the nymph and saved the lost man from being sent back out into the storm? (2 points) Keep it 2-3 sentences and simple

1 answer

Analyzing the relationship between kinetic and thermal energy could have helped the nymph understand that blowing on something can transfer energy in different ways. By blowing on her fingers, the man was using kinetic energy from his breath to warm himself, while blowing on his soup transferred some of the heat away, cooling it down. Recognizing this would have shown her that the man's actions were not contradictory but rather examples of the same principle applied differently.