Question

Which of the following is the very poor conductor of heat?
A) Water
B) metals
C) liquid other than water
D) steam

Answer 1

Hint : In general, liquids are a poor conductor of heat than solids and among solids particularly metals are good conductors of electricity. We will discuss the heat conductivity property of the materials mentioned in the options and the reasons for their good or bad heat conductivity.

Complete step by step answer
All metals are good conductors of heat however they can have varying degrees of heat conduction. Some metals are better conductors than other metals but generally, they are good conductors of heat so option (B) is not the correct choice.
Some materials are bad conductors of heat which means they don’t allow heat to flow through them. Liquids in general are poor conductors of electricity.
However, liquids like mercury are good conductors of electricity even though it is a liquid. Hence water is a very poor conductor of heat from the options given.
So, the correct choice is option (A).

Note
Some liquids have poor conduction properties than water too but from the options given in the question, water is the poorest conductor. While molecules of steam have a very less intermolecular force which enables them to transfer heat through molecular vibration. However, heat is transferred through gases in the form of convection or radiation while conduction of heat happens due to contact of the surface area of a solid or liquid surface with another solid or liquid so while steam is a good medium to transfer heat energy, it does not count as conduction so, among solids and liquids, water is the poorest conductor.