THERMODYNAMICS

PRELIMINARY ACTIVITY QUESTIONS

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TEST YOUR KNOWLEDGE
1. Wrap a fur coat around a thermometer, will its temperature rise or not? Why

2. If you hold one end of a metal nail against a piece of ice, the end in your hand soon becomes cold. Does cold flow from the ice to your hand? Explain.

3. If heat transfers from hot to cold, and stops when the two objects reach the same temperature, explain why it is possible for the inside of your car to be hotter than the air outside on a hot summer day.

4. Since a hot cup of tea cools more rapidly than a lukewarm cup of tea, would it be correct to say that a hot cup of tea will cool to room temperature before a lukewarm cup of tea will?

5. The Concorde supersonic airplane is 20 cm longer when in flight. Explain why.

6. What is temperature a measure of?

7. 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. Is this true if the rock is dropped into the Atlantic Ocean?

8. When you step out of a swimming pool on a hot, dry day, you feel quite chilly. Why?

9. Does a gas give off or absorb energy when it turns into a solid?

10.In a still room, smoke will sometimes rise only so far, never reaching the ceiling. Why?

11.Why is it colder in higher altitude locations when in fact they are closer to the sun?

12.Why is it that nitrogen being used to inflate tires is considered as one way of improving fuel efficiency?

13.How do you basically explain the working principles of mercury-filled thermometers?

14.How is the transfer/ conveying of heat done? Would it be possible to reverse such conveyance?

15.Which has more heat energy, a burning candle or an iceberg?

16.Why do spray paint canisters/ CO2 airgun tanks turn cold when its contents are evacuated? Is it because its content is cold? 17.Our world is actually covered by 2/3s of water which basically absorbs most of the suns radiated heat/ energy, would it be possible to use such energy trapped other than using SOLAR CELLS?
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18.Why is it much faster to boil water at higher elevations/ mountainous regions? Does the same translate in the cooking of foods?

19.Why to divers of great depths need to slowly ascend before resurfacing at the water surface? 20.How do you explain the working principles of pressure cookers?

ANSWERS TO PRELIMINARY ACTIVITY QUESTIONS

1. The temperature of the thermometer will not rise even if it was coated with fur coat. The thermometer and fur coat basically has the same temperature, for the temperature to increase there has to be some TRANSFER OF HEAT which would necessitate two thermal differing bodies. 2. If we are to refer to one of the sub-statements of the Second Law of Thermodynamics, heat naturally flows from a hot region body to a cold region body which occurs naturally. In such case (situation cited), it would be improbable to convey such COLD towards your hands (unless you use an external means). Since your hand is a higher temperature body, heat would flow into the metal nail towards that of the ice, The reason why your hand feels cold is that you are losing heat that you are accustomed to and not absorbing cold. HEAT IS THE ONE THAT FLOWS AND NOT THE COLD. 3. This has something to do with what we call GREENHOUSE EFFECT, a phenomena where hot gases are trapped inside. Heat is conveyed by

radiation (electromagnetic waves) by passing through the glass window of your car and are absorbed by the car seats and other objects inside. They then bounce-off but are of a different wave length in which they no longer can penetrate the glass window of your car. All of that energy is therefore trapped inside causing the temperature to rise. 4. The hot cup of tea will not cool to room temperature faster than a lukewarm cup of tea. Both cup of tea would eventually cool-off at the same time. Though the hot cup of tea cools more rapidly than the lukewarm cup of tea, it basically is because of temperature difference. That such hot cup of tea would also become lukewarm and compared with the other cup (lukewarm) would cool at the same pace. 5. Such phenomena is due to another phenomena called friction. At supersonic speeds, air friction is at the highest value thereby causing some sort of expansion to the concordes over-all length. Such increase in length eventually subsides as the plane decreases its speed until it goes back to its original dimensions. 6. Though it is widely perceived that temperature is a measure of the coldness and hotness of a substance, it basically is a measure of the total kinetic energy of all the atoms in an object that are always moving. COLD OBJECTS HAVE LOWER KINETIC ENERGIES WHILE HOT OBJECTS (with their atoms constantly bumping each other/ agitated) HAVE HIGHER KINETIC ENERGIES. 7. With thermal equilibrium, the end result would basically be the same but not with the Antlantic Oceans water getting warmer due basically to its enormous volume. But it is a change nonetheless. 8. The water in your skin will eventually evaporate into the air. For such evaporation to happen it will require heat (energy) most of which will come from your own body. As such, your body will lose some heat which your body is not really accustomed to. Thus, the CHILLY FEEL.
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9. Such change of state is called DEPOSITION (from gas to solid). For states of matter to change phase it requires cooling or heating which is a form of energy. For such transformation, a gas to change into a solid gives-off energy as the transformation is from high energy into low energy. 10.The smoke will be initially hot. Since hot air is less dense than cool air it will rise(Air Buoyancy). However, it will cool-off as it rises until its density is the same as the density of the air in the room. At that point, it will stop rising and then eventually mix with other air components. 11.Higher altitude locations have lower air pressures. Lower pressures mean lower temperature. Such observation is true if we are to base it upon the general gas law equation. Also at sea level where there are higher air pressures (1 atm = 14.7 psi), the air is not thin in which the air particles help trap the sunlight which radiates heat. 12.One way of improving fuel efficiency is by using NITROGEN as an alternative gas instead of only using compressed air. Nitrogen is an INERT GAS that is not affected by changes in temperature. There are instances wherein the compressed air is affected by increases in temperature as such it affects the volume(physical appearance) of the tire itself. If the tires volume is uneven, it has a corresponding effect on the smooth rotation of the wheels which in turn affects the cars fuel efficiency.

13.It is said that increases in temperature makes most of materials particularly metals to expand (materials atomic configuration is agitated once temperature is increased thus resulting to expansion). Which is no different in the case of mercury filled thermometers. Once the metal tip of such mercury is subjected to any increases or decreases in temperature, the mercury inside either expands or contracts. 14.The natural flow or transfer of heat is from HOT BODY to COLD BODY (based upon REEVES STATEMENT) and this happens naturally without using any external or mechanical means. On the other side, it would also be possible to convey heat from COLD BODY to HOT BODY but this would require the use of external means or mechanical devices such as those in refrigerators and air conditioning units. 15.Though it would seem that the burning candle has more heat energy, IT IS NOT. The iceberg has more heat energy. TRY TO REMEMBER that Heat Energy is the total kinetic energy of all the atoms in the object. The iceberg is colder but technically is considered to have enormous or massive number of atoms. 16.The contents of spray paint canisters and CO2 air gun tanks are not cold which could not be considered as the reason why such vessels turn cold when its contents are evacuated. It simply is due to the relationship between PRESSURE and TEMPERATURE which are considered to be directly proportional with respect to one another. As spray paint canisters and CO2 airgun taks are used, the pressure inside decreases, as such there would also be decreases in temperature. Which is basically the main reason why the pressure vessels turn cold.

17.There is a new technology called OTEC. Termed as OCEAN THERMAL ENERGY CONVERSION. It basically uses the hot ocean water surface to propel steam turbines and uses the deep cold ocean water to liquefy the used steam. Such technology however is limited to certain portions of the earth having large thermal discrepancies in the ocean water surface and deep ocean water (Japan, Guam, and even certain portions of our ocean territory are adaptable).

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18.Water is a unique substance as compared to other substances. At sea level it takes quite a time for it to boil but at higher elevations it boils much faster. This is due to the presence of air at both locations. At sea level large pockets of air exists while at high mountainous regions very thin air exists. This air sort of acts like a protective barrier or coating in both cases. But at high mountainous regions with the less presence of air, there is less barrier or obstruction for the water to boil.

The cooking of food will not be quite as fast as the boiling of water.

19.Divers of great depths need to slowly resurface/ ascend to minimize the possibility of having decompression sickness which could prove fatal leading to either paralysis/ death. Our body has numerous internal organs like our lungs which expands/ contracts. As we go deeper, the pressure increases, as such our lungs tend to compress. Resurfacing quickly would subject ourselves, our lungs to a lesser pressure which would make our lungs expand but at a rather quicker pace. Our body could adapt to any changes to our environment but not at that very rapid pace.

This is the very reason why divers in most advanced countries subject themselves to go inside a decompression chamber which slowly makes the body to readily adapt to the pressure outside.

20.Pressure cookers lessen the time in preparing foods. They are considered as tenderizers in the sense that they make use of both high pressure and high temperature to boil and then tenderize the meat inside.

Conventional cooking uses only temperatures and pressures that a cooking ware is capable of obtaining thus has a longer time of obtaining its goal.

Pressure cookers has this safety cap to bleed-off excessive pressure so as to prevent the explosion of this pressure vessel.

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