Question

Utensils become hot after cooking because
(A) rate of heat flow is constant
(B) heat flows from the body at a higher temperature to the body at a lower temperature
(C) Both (A) and (B)
(D) Neither (A) nor (B)

Answer 1

Hint
The rate of heat flow depends on the amount of gas we provide to the stove. The second law of thermodynamics tells us that heat always flows from a higher temperature to a lower temperature to maximize entropy in the system.

Complete step by step answer
For option (A), the rate of heat flow depends on the gas we provide to the stove which decides the amount of fire that will be generated. The heat flow in turn between the stove and the utensil depends on the temperature difference between the gas and the utensil so option (A) is incorrect.
When we use metal containers to cook food, the heat from the fire in the stove heats the container. This is due to the second law of thermodynamics which tells us that heat flows from a point of high temperature i.e. the fire to a point of lower temperature i.e. the utensil so option (B) is correct.
Since option (A) is incorrect but option (B) is correct, we can discard option (C) and (D) as the correct choices.

Note
Here we have assumed that all the heat flows from the stove to the utensil, in reality, there are heat losses associated with heating the air around the utensil due to conventional heating. As a result, the rate of heat flow depends on the amount of gas we provide to the stove as well as other environmental factors of the place where the stove is placed so it is never constant.