Suppose you heat an oven to 400° F (about 200° C) and boil a pot of water. Which of the following explains why you would be burned by sticking your hand briefly in the pot but not by sticking your hand briefly in the oven?

A. The water can transfer heat to your arm more quickly than the air.
B. The water has a higher temperature than the oven.
C. The oven has a higher temperature than the water.
D. The molecules in the water are moving faster than the molecules in the oven.

Getting burned has more to do with the rate of heat transfer, which is faster in water due to its higher specific heat and density, than in air, even when the air in an oven is at a higher temperature than boiling water.

Explanation:

The reason you would get burned by dipping your hand briefly into a pot of boiling water but not by placing it momentarily in a 400° F (about 200° C) oven, is due to how the heat is transferred in each instance. The choice a. The water can transfer heat to your arm more quickly than the air. is the correct one. This is because water has a higher specific heat compared to air and due to its density, the thermal contact with your hand is better and more heat gets transferred within a shorter period of time. In comparison, air is less dense and the rate of heat transfer is slower. So even though the oven is heated to a temperature higher than that of boiling water, dipping your hand into the water will cause a burn more quickly.

The temperature of both the oven and the water isn’t the chief factor here – it’s the medium's capacity to transfer that heat. Despite being at a lower temperature, water being a liquid medium can transfer heat more rapidly than air, causing immediate skin damage and resulting in a burn.

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