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heat is being conducted from a hot end of a copper rod to the cold end of a plastic rod. both rods have the same length. what can you say about the temperature in the middle where copper and plastic rod touch?

1 Answer

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Final answer:

The temperature where a copper and plastic rod touch in the middle would not be uniform; the copper side would be warmer due to copper's higher thermal conductivity compared to plastic.

Step-by-step explanation:

The temperature in the middle where a copper rod and a plastic rod touch, given that heat is being conducted from the hot end of the copper rod to the cold end of the plastic rod, would depend on the relative conductivities of the two materials. Copper is a good conductor of heat, whereas plastic is a poor conductor. This means that the copper side of the contact point would likely be at a higher temperature than the plastic side, as copper would conduct heat more effectively towards the middle. The exact temperature would not be uniform across the contact area and would reflect a gradient, with the copper being closer to the hot temperature and the plastic closer to the cold temperature. In a steady-state situation, the point where they touch is likely to be the point of greatest temperature difference between the two rods due to the differing thermal conductivities.

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