Question

Drinking a hot tea from a saucer preferred to a cup, due to:
a)Surface area
b)Materials of the saucer
c)Thermal conductivity
d)Colour

Answer 1

Hint: The above question can be answered based on the fact that in which of either case the tea gets cold faster. Drinking hot tea is not preferred by people as one can get his mouth hurt due to the burns from the hot tea. Therefore we will see in which of the two cases i.e. drinking tea in a cup or drinking it from a saucer, the tea gets colder fast enough in which of the two cases and accordingly determine the favorable preference.

Complete step-by-step solution:
The tea gets colder basically due to the rate of vaporization. The heat gets vaporized and hence the tea gets colder. The rate of vaporization depends on three major factors i.e. surrounding temperature, humidity, and surface area. When the tea is poured into the saucer, it will lose heat rapidly to that of in a cup as the rate of vaporization increases with an increase in surface area. Hence one would prefer to drink tea in a saucer rather than in a cup. Hence option A is the correct answer.

Note: It is to be noted that in the above case when we mean by the rate of vaporization, it basically means how fast the heat is dissipated into the surrounding. When the tea is hot the molecules at the surface have sufficiently high energy to escape into the surrounding. As these molecules escape into the surrounding the heat is lost. But when we place the same tea in a saucer, the surface area increases as a result of which a greater number of molecules escape, thereby increasing the rate of evaporation.