Chapter Questions
Why wouldn't you expect all the molecules in a gas to have the same speed?
In your room, there are things such as tables, chairs, other people, and so forth. Which of these things has a temperature (a) lower than, (b) greater than, and (c) equal to the temperature of the air?
Why can't you establish whether you are running a high temperature by touching your own forehead?
Which is greater, an increase in temperature of $1^{\circ} \mathrm{C}$ or an increase of $1^{\circ} \mathrm{F}$ ?
Which has the greater amount of internal energy, an iceberg or a cup of hot coffee? Explain.
On which temperature scale does the average kinetic energy of molecules double when the temperature doubles?
The temperature of the Sun's interior is about $10^{7}$ degrees. Does it matter whether this is degrees Celsius or kelvins? Defend your answer.
Use the laws of thermodynamics to defend the statement that $100 \%$ of the electrical energy that goes into lighting a lamp is converted to internal energy.
When air is rapidly compressed, why does its temperature increase?
Which of the laws of thermodynamics has exceptions?
If you vigorously shake a can of liquid back and forth for more than a minute, will there be a noticeable temperature increase? (Try it and see.)
What happens to the gas pressure within a sealed gallon can when it is heated? Cooled? Why?
After driving a car for some distance, why does the air pressure in the tires increase?
If you drop a hot rock into a pail of water, the temperature of the rock and the water will change until both are equal. The rock will cool and the water will warm. Does this hold true if the hot rock is dropped into the Atlantic Ocean? Explain.
In the old days, on a cold winter night, it was common to bring a hot object to bed with you. Which would be better to keep you warm through the cold night10-kilogram iron brick or a 10 -kilogram jug of hot water at the same temperature? Explain.
Desert sand is very hot in the day and very cool at night. What does this tell you about its specific heat?
Why does adding the same amount of heat to two different objects not necessarily produce the same increase in temperature?
What role does specific heat capacity play in a watermelon staying cool after removal from a cooler on a hot day?
When a 1 -kg metal pan containing $1 \mathrm{~kg}$ of cold water is removed from the refrigerator and set on a table, which absorbs more heat from the room - the pan or the water? Defend your answer.
Iceland, so named to discourage conquest by expanding empires, is not at all ice covered like Greenland and parts of Siberia, even though it is nearly on the Arctic Circle. The average winter temperature of Iceland is considerably higher than regions at the same latitude in eastern Greenland and central Siberia. Why is this so?
Why does the presence of large bodies of water tend to moderate the climate of nearby land - making it warmer in cold weather, and cooler in hot weather?
If the winds at the latitude of San Francisco and Washington, D.C., were from the east rather than from the west, why might San Francisco be able to grow only cherry trees and Washington, D.C., only palm trees?
Cite an exception to the claim that all substances expand when heated.
Would a bimetallic strip function if the two different metals happened to have the same rates of expansion? Is it important that they expand at different rates? Defend your answer.
Steel plates are commonly attached to each other with rivets, which are slipped into holes in the plates and rounded over with hammers. The hotness of the rivets makes them easier to round over, but their hotness has another important advantage in providing a tight fit. What is it?
A method for breaking boulders used to be putting them in a hot fire, then dousing them with cold water. Why would this fracture the boulders?
An old remedy for a pair of nested drinking glasses that stick together is to run water at different temperatures into the inner glass and over the surface of the outer glass. Which water should be hot, and which cold?
Would you or the gas company gain by having gas warmed before it passed through your gas meter?
A metal ball is just able to pass through a metal ring. But if the ball is first held in a hot flame, it expands and won't be able to pass through the ring. Suppose instead that the ring is heated, and not the ball. Will the ball then be able to pass through the hot ring?
After a machinist very quickly slips a hot, snugly fitting iron ring over a very cold brass cylinder, there is no way that the two can be separated intact. Can you explain why this is so?
Suppose you cut a small gap in a metal ring. If you heat the ring, will the gap become wider or narrower?
Why do long steam pipes often have one or more relatively large U-shaped sections of pipe?
Suppose that water is used in a thermometer instead of mercury. If the temperature is at $4^{\circ} \mathrm{C}$ and then changes, why can't the thermometer indicate whether the temperature is rising or falling?
How does the combined volume of the billions and billions of hexagonal open spaces in the structures of ice crystals in a piece of ice compare with the portion of ice that floats above the water line?
State whether water at the following temperatures will expand or contract when warmed a little: $0^{\circ} \mathrm{C}$; $4^{\circ} \mathrm{C} ; 6^{\circ} \mathrm{C}$
Why is it important to protect water pipes so they don't freeze
If cooling occurred at the bottom of a pond instead of at the surface, would a lake freeze from the bottom up? Explain.
Make up a multiple-choice question that distinguishes between heat and temperature.