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A chef takes four pans from different parts of her kitchen and puts them in two stacks. The diagram above shows the pans before they touch each other. Use the information in the diagram to answer the question.

After the pans have been touching for a while, which of the two bottom pans will be cooler, and why?

Responses

a
The smaller bottom pan will be cooler than the larger bottom pan, because less energy has to transfer for the molecules to reach the same temperature as the molecules of the top pan.
The smaller bottom pan will be cooler than the larger bottom pan, because less energy has to transfer for the molecules to reach the same temperature as the molecules of the top pan.

b
The larger bottom pan will be cooler than the smaller bottom pan. It started with more total energy, so less energy had to transfer for both pans to reach the same total energy.
The larger bottom pan will be cooler than the smaller bottom pan. It started with more total energy, so less energy had to transfer for both pans to reach the same total energy.

c
The larger bottom pan will be cooler than the smaller bottom pan, because the energy that transferred to it will have spread out over more molecules.
The larger bottom pan will be cooler than the smaller bottom pan, because the energy that transferred to it will have spread out over more molecules.

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

1 answer

The correct response is:

c
The larger bottom pan will be cooler than the smaller bottom pan because the energy that transferred to it will have spread out over more molecules.

This explanation is based on the concept of energy distribution. When energy is transferred to a larger pan with more molecules, that energy is spread over a larger area, resulting in a lower temperature increase compared to a smaller pan with fewer molecules. Therefore, after the pans have been touching for a while, the larger bottom pan will be cooler.