Question

Which has more heat?
A: a lit match
B: a giant chunk of ice
C: they both have the same amount of heat

Answer 1

You cannot say which of these id true with certainty.

This question is presumably to encourage you to distinguish between heat and temperature.

Typically a 'giant chunk of ice' in normal condition contains a large amount of heat - however - this assumes that it is somewhere around freezing in temperature.

The amount of heat present in an object DOES (in GENERAL terms - with exceptions) depend on its temperature).

However this question does not tell you the actual temperature of the ice - it is possible that the temperature is close to absolute 0 (-273K) and hence contains almost no heat.

I appreciate that this is a pedantic answer - but really, questions in Physics ought to be more precisely stated than this.

Answer 2

Yes i agree with you this question does not give me any indication of what the answer could be. The question should also tell me how big the giant chunk of ice is but it does not.

Answer 3

Well - it does say 'giant' and the comparison is against a lit match.

So IF you want to assume the temperature of the ice is around freezing then it is a safe bet that it contains the more heat.

But my point above is more precise.