Question

When a 3-kg iron skillet is heated on the stove, it becomes hot very quickly. When 3 kg of water is heated on the stove it heats up slowly. What is the reason for this difference? Support your answer using 3 – 4 complete sentences.

Answer 1

@Michele_Laino

Answer 2

@KyanTheDoodle

Answer 3

@cramos725

Answer 4

let's suppose to heat the same mass of water and iron, namely M=3 Kg of iron and M=3 kg of water
Let's suppose furthermore, that the temperature difference is the same, say \[\Delta \theta \]

Answer 5

then the quantity of heat absobed by iron is:
\[\Delta {Q_{IRON}} = {c_{IRON}}M\Delta \theta \]

Answer 6

where the quantity of heat absorbed by water is:
\[\Delta {Q_{WATER}} = {c_{WATER}}M\Delta \theta \]

Answer 7

None of that makes sense to me

Answer 8

now we can consider the specific heat of a substance:
\[\Large c = \frac{1}{M}\frac{{\Delta Q}}{{\Delta \theta }}\]
as a heating rate with respect to the temperature difference

Answer 9

empirically we can say that the subsequent condition holds:
\[\Large \Delta {Q_{IRON}} > \Delta {Q_{WATER}}\]
from which, we get:
\[\Large {c_{IRON}} > {c_{WATER}}\]

Answer 10

and keeping in mind the meaning of c as heating rate, we get your answer

Answer 11

another reasoning is:
the mobility of electrons inside the iron (please think about the Fermi sea) is greater than the mobility of the molecule of water, so the heat will transmit itself more rapidly in iron than in water