Chapter 12.1, Problem 17SSC

To determine

To Explain: The plastic spoon out of hot cocoa cup does not burn the tongue but direct hot cocoa does.

Explanation of Solution

Introduction:

Plastics are very poor conductors of heat. It means they have low thermal conductivity and require high amount of heat to raise a unit temperature.

When hot cocoa is directly put on tongue it causes burn but if a plastic spoon is used it doesn’t because plastic spoon is a poor conductor of heat.