Question

2. You purchase your daily coffee at the Chemist’s Coffeehouse and have a choice of two cups: one with a cup constant, Kcup, of 65 J/°C and the other with a cup constant of 12 J/°C. Which cup will you choose to hold your coffee and why?

Answer 1

The hot coffee will transfer heat into the cups. Hence, the temperature of the cups will rise. The higher the rise in temperature, more difficult it is to hold the cup. Assuming that the amount of heat produced by the hot coffee is same, we can write the following equation

Where

= amount of heat transferred from the coffee to the cup material.

cup constant

= change in temperature in cup due to heat transfer.

Now, Looking at the above derived equation, is higher when is lower, which means the cup with lower coffee constant will heat up more.

Hence, we will choose the cup with higher cup constant i.e. the cup with cup constant of .