Question

Chelsea fills four bottles with water. She then places the four bottles of water in the sun. Each bottle contains one-half liter of water. After a few hours, Chelsea measures the water temperature in each bottle.
Select the bottle that most likely has the highest water temperature.

Answer 1

Explanation:

A 500-mL bottle of water at room temperature and a 2-L bottle of water at the same temperature were placed in a refrigerator. After 30 minutes, the 500-mL bottle of water had cooled to the temperature of the refrigerator. An hour later, the 2-L of water had cooled to the same temperature. When asked which sample of water lost the most heat, one student replied that both bottles lost the same amount of heat because they started at the same temperature and finished at the same temperature. A second student thought that the 2-L bottle of water lost more heat because there was more water. A third student believed that the 500-mL bottle of water lost more heat because it cooled more quickly. A fourth student thought that it was not possible to tell because we do not know the initial temperature and the final temperature of the water. Indicate which of these answers is correct and describe the error in each of the other answers.

Answer: The second student was correct. The error that the first student made is that he ignored the mass of water. For the third student, it should be 2L bottle of water lost more heat since it takes longer time to reach the temperature of the fridge. The mistake the fourth student make is that even though we do not know the initial T and the final T, we could still answer this question; because the  ΔT  are the same in two systems and it would not affect the comparison.

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