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sgstudent
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Homework Statement
from this video: It showed that a better conductor of heat will transfer heat as well as absorb heat more quickly than a lousy conductor. However, during the transfer the heat is passed from eg metal at 30 degrees to a solid at 20 degrees . So why would the metal being a better conductor allow more heat to be transferred than plastic to ice?
Homework Equations
none
The Attempt at a Solution
I'm thinking since the heat is being transferred to the solid the metal/plastic particles would vibrate transferring energy to the solid. So for the metal, being a better conductor of heat more energy can be transferred to the ice per unit time than the plastic which is a bad conductor of heat. Since heat can only be transferred from a region of higher temperature to lower temperature, so only a fixed amount of energy can be transferred to the first few molecules (as the solid may be a bad conductor) before that heat dissipates slightly and more heat is transferred into it. Hence, even if the first layer of the solid's temperature reaches equilibrium, the metal would still be able to transfer more heat than the plastic.
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