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Chapter 14: Q12Q (page 390)

Why is wet sand at a beach cooler to walk on than dry sand?

Short Answer

Expert verified

The wet sand contains trapped water. When this water comes in contact with the sun’s heat, evaporation starts and creates a cooling effect. Thus, wet sand at a beach is cooler to walk on than dry sand.

Step by step solution

01

Understanding evaporation

Evaporation occurs when some water molecules achieve adequate kinetic energy to break through the water surface and disappear into the atmosphere.

02

Step 2:Explanation for why wet sand at a beach is cooler to walk on than dry sand

The wet sand holds trapped water between itsgrains.When warmed by the sun, the water begins evaporating. As evaporation produces cooling, the sand becomes cool.

On the other hand, dry sand holds no water and gets warmed up. Sometimes the temperature of dry sand is so high that it becomes hard to walk on it.

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Most popular questions from this chapter

When you put an ice cube in a glass of warm tea, which of the following happens?

(a) Cold flows from the ice cube into the tea.

(b) Cold flows from the ice cube into the tea and heat flows from the tea into the ice cube.

(c) Heat flows from the tea into the ice cube.

(d) Neither heat nor cold flows. Only temperature flows between the ice and the tea.

A premature baby in an incubator can be dangerously cooled even when the air temperature in the incubator is warm. Explain.

In a typical squash game (Fig. 14–21), two people hit a soft rubber ball at a wall. Assume that the ball hits the wall at a velocity of 22 m/s and bounces back at a velocity of 12 m/s, and that the kinetic energy lost in the process heats the ball. What will be the temperature increase of the ball after one bounce? (The specific heat of rubber is about\(1200\;{\rm{J/kg}} \cdot ^\circ {\rm{C}}\).)

A microwave oven is used to heat 250 g of water. On its maximum setting, the oven can raise the temperature of the liquid water from 20°C to 100°C in 1 min 45 s (= 105 s). (a) At what rate does the oven put energy into the liquid water? (b) If the power input from the oven to the water remains constant, determine how many grams of water will boil away if the oven is operated for 2 min (rather than just 1 min 45 s).

After a hot shower and dishwashing, there seems to be no hot water left in the 65-gal (245-L) water heater. This suggests that the tank has emptied and refilled with water at roughly 10°C. (a) How much energy does it take to reheat the water to 45°C? (b) How long would it take if the heater output is 9500 W?
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