Homework Help: Energy Transfer in Natural Systems

Posted by Sydney on Friday, December 3, 2010 at 10:38pm.

If u reach into a hot oven to remove a pizza, ur arm is not burned by the hot air but would be burned if u touched the pan. Explain.

If u reached into a hot oven to remove a pizza, ur arm would not get burned by the hot air, instead it would get burned if u touched the pan because the particles of the pan are in vibration and so if u touch the it, the heat from the particles in the pan touches the colder particles of ur jand and ur hand absorbs the heat from the pan, these particles spread little and make surrounding particles of ur hand vibrate too. Thats how u can get a burn which turns out to be bigger than the point at which ur hand actually touched the pan. This is conduction. The warm air coming out of the oven would be convection.

Energy Transfer in Natural Systems - bobpursley, Friday, December 3, 2010 at 10:47pm
Both the pan and the hot air are at the same temperature. But much more heat is contained in the pan (it has a much higher specific heat capacity than air).

So getting a burn means you absorbed heat: the pan has more to offer.

Worse yet, if you were scalded with hot water. Gram for gram, water stores about 10 times as much heat as aluminum (at the same temperature),this is why hot water is very dangerous.
Energy Transfer in Natural Systems - Sydney, Friday, December 3, 2010 at 10:55pm
thanks for the information bobpursley, ill keep all that in mind, thanks a bunch:)

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