A sealed box containing a chunk of ice is made of 2cm thick wood, a good thermal insulator. The air outside the box is warm. It takes the ice one hour to melt. If I had put 2cm of aluminum (a good thermal conductor) around the outside of the box, in contact with the wood, the ice would have melted:
Faster
Slower
At the same rate
If you had put 2cm of aluminum around the outside of the box, the ice would have melted faster.
Explanation:
Wood is a good thermal insulator, which means it slows down the transfer of heat. In the initial scenario, with only wood surrounding the box, the heat from the warm air outside is gradually transferred to the ice inside, causing it to melt over the course of one hour.
Aluminum, on the other hand, is a good thermal conductor. It allows heat to easily pass through it. So, if you add a layer of aluminum around the box, it would enhance the transfer of heat from the warm air to the ice. The aluminum would quickly conduct the heat through its layer and provide it with a direct path to the ice. As a result, the ice would melt at a faster rate compared to when it was surrounded by wood alone.
Therefore, the correct answer is that the ice would melt faster if you had put 2cm of aluminum around the outside of the box.