A burning mtch and a bonfire may have the same temperature, yet you would not sit around a burning match on a fall evening to stay warm, why not?

Question

Chemistry

Guillermo Sparks

1 January, 16:14

A burning mtch and a bonfire may have the same temperature, yet you would not sit around a burning match on a fall evening to stay warm, why not?

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Answers (1)

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Avah · Answer 1

There are two maind reasons: time of burning and amount of energy.

Explanation:

The most important thing is understanding that what would keep a person warm is not the temperature but the heat (energy) that is being provided.

The match would give just a little amount of heat and would burn very fast.

The bonfire, because has a way higher amount of wood, would give more heat and burn for longer.

This can be justiufied by the specific heat formula below:

Q = mcΔT

Q: heat, m: mass, c: specific heat, ΔT: temperature variation

Therefore, even if we have the same substance (wood), which will have the same value of c, and the same temperature variation, with a higher mass, more heat will be released.