Give an account of the transfer of heat by conduction.How would you show that copper is better than iron as a conductor of heat?
Heat is transferred from one atom to the next so passes along the metal. Get two rodsone copper, one ironput candle wax at 1cm intervals along both rods, imbedding thumbtacks in each blob. Balance both on a tripod and heat the end of both rods with a bunsen burner. You will notice that the heat conducts quicker along the copper rod as the thumbtacks fall down as the heat reaches the wax and melts it.
Take two bars of similar cross section. One of steel and one of copper. Hold one end of one in your left hand and the end of the other in your right hand. Heat the far end of both with a blow torch. Now if they were both equally good at conduction you will drop them at the same time. Otherwise you will drop one first. And if you do then the one that gets hot first must be the best conductor of heat.
You set the counter top to 500 degrees. Place both a copper pan and an iron pan that has the same dimensions. Put a thermometer on the pan and whichever heats up to 500 degrees is the better conductor.
