Question

Which of the following qualities are best suited for handling a cooking utensil?
A: High specific heat and lower thermal conductivity
B: High specific heat and high thermal conductivity
C: Low specific heat and low thermal conductivity
D: Low specific heat and high thermal conductivity

Answer 1

Hint: We know that cooking utensils should heat up evenly for the food to get cooked easily. The material shouldn’t get extremely heated up during cooking because it might cause burns. Both these factors are mainly considered before choosing the material to create a cooking utensil.

Step by step answer:
Specific heat is the amount of heat per unit mass that is required to raise the temperature by one degree Celsius. We express the relationship between heat and temperature change in terms of specific heat.
High specific heat implies that we need high energy to raise the temperature of a given system. Hence, for a given amount of energy, the temperature would be very less if the material has high specific heat. Hence, this is a suitable feature for making cooking utensils.
Thermal conductivity is termed as the rate at which heat is transferred by conduction through a unit area of a cross section of a material when a temperature gradient exists perpendicular to the area.
Low conductivity for a utensil implies that heat is not conveyed to all portions easily.
Hence, handling it during cooking would be very easy.
Hence, low thermal conductivity is also a preferred feature for utensils.

Therefore, option A is the correct answer among the given options.

Note: Thermal conductivity is applied in heat sink applications (high value) and thermal insulation (low value). Specific heat is used in the manufacture of kitchen appliances, condenser coils of refrigerators etc.