please help on this question

Question

1.At what temperature was thermal equilibrium reached? How long did it take to arrive at this temperature?

2.How does the temperature change within the first 60 seconds of the experiment? Within the last 60 seconds?

3.For the following scenarios, predict whether the time taken to reach thermal equilibrium would increase or decrease. 

 

The thickness of the metal divider is doubled:

The metal divider is replaced by a glass divider of the same thickness:

The water in the left compartment begins at 100C instead of 70C:

Time (s)	(Left Compartment Temp (°C)	Right Compartment Temp (°C)
0	70	10
30	52	28
60	47	33
90	42	38
120	41	39
150	40	40
180	40	40

Answer 1

Hi Aseel A.,

The data are right in front of you. Take a look at them. These are not hard questions to answer. Maybe you have doubts as to how to think about the flow of heat from one compartment to the other. The heat flows as fast as it can, given the resistance to heat flow provided by the divider. Thicker, or less-heat-conductive, divider = slower heat transfer.

Also, it looks as though the volumes in the left and right are equal, since the temperature changes are the same magnitude for each. That should clue you in on condition #3.

-- Cheers, --Mr. d.