Additional SEE Practice — Q1. Once in winter, while drinking water from a steel jug on the table, Samir felt the water to be warmer towards the bottom. Justify his experience based on scientific facts.

Question

Accepted Answer

This can happen because of how heat is transferred through the steel jug and the surrounding air. If the room air near the tabletop is slightly warmer than the air higher up, or if the table surface itself retains some warmth, then the bottom of the steel jug (a good conductor of heat) would gain more heat from the table/warmer surrounding air, warming the water near the bottom slightly more than the water near the top, which is more exposed to the room's cooler air above. Since steel conducts heat well, this uneven heat transfer through the jug walls can create a noticeable temperature difference between the bottom and the top of the water.