Question

Does an object that feels cold to the touch contain thermal energy? explain your answer.

Answer 1

YES - explained (Temperature is an average of the kinetic energy isn't it? Thermal energy is the total. So you could have a really big "cold" object and it would have more energy then say a small "hot" object. But the average energy of the hot object would be greater than the average of the cold object. "You only need to know the amount of thermal energy a body contains to calculate its temperature" -You need to know something about the size of the objects and the particles that made it up? "The object contains less thermal energy than your hand" -It could be a large cold object, so it could have a greater amount of energy but over a larger area, so it's just the temperature that is lower. I've only studied thermodynamics a little, but I think that's sorta right...)