Betsy was stirring a pot of hot soup with a large, metal spoon. The phone rang, so she left the spoon in the soup to go answer it. When she came back, the spoon felt very hot. Question: Explain why the metal spoon felt hot. Would a wooden spoon left in hot soup feel warm too? Why or why not? Use the terms insulator and conductor in your response.

The metal spoon felt hot because the heat from the soup passed through the spoon via conduction. No, a wooden spoon wouldn't show similar effects.

Explanation:

Heat conductors are the materials that let heat flow through them easily. The metal spoon referred to in the question is a heat conductor. Conduction through the conductor was the reason the spoon felt hot. When heat passes through conduction, heat is passed from one atom to other. Only heat flows across the atoms, the atoms don't move. The insulators are materials that don't let heat flow through them. The wooden spoon is an example of insulator.