Sunday, June 14, 2009

Question 3


An unlit match is held near to an extremely hot Bunsen flame. Why does the match not get hot enough to light?

Ans: Air is a bad conductor of heat. Thus, there is not enough heat being transferred from the Bunsen burner to the unlit match.

Wrong Assumptions:
1. The flame is not hot enough.
2. The flame does not radiate any heat sideways.
3. A match can only be lit by striking it on a rough surface.

2 comments:

  1. Erm, i think heat is radiated sideways ( as depicted in diagrams). Maybe not transferred by convection probably.

    -yuying

    ReplyDelete
  2. The flame does radiate heat sideways.
    Wrong Assumptions:
    2. The flame does not radiate any heat sideways.
    (look at the qu)

    ReplyDelete