Answer 1:
Copper cannot absorb and store that much
thermal energy. If you wanted to boil a liter
of water, it would take 10 times as much energy as
it would to heat the same amount of copper to the
same temperature! This is because copper has a
much lower "heat capacity" than water. Copper
will also heat up quickly because it has a high
"thermal conductivity" which means heat can
pass quickly from the outside to the inside. In
fact, the thermal conductivity of copper is 800
times larger than that of water.
If you were to put a block of copper and a pot
of water on your stove, the top of the copper
would heat up much faster than the top of the
water for two reasons:
1) it needs less thermal energy to change
temperature (lower heat capacity) and
2) the heat can transfer from the bottom to the
top of the copper faster (higher thermal
conductivity).
Best,
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