Question

Two scientists are measuring the temperature of liquids in two beakers. Liquid A has a temperature of -105.4° C and Liquid B has a temperature of -10.83 ° C.

Which liquid is warmer and why?​

Answer 1

Liq A= -105.4ºC < LiqB= -10.83ºC

Explanation:

Hello!

The easiest and quickest way to compare two negative values and determine which one is greater is by sorting them in a number line. (Check attachment)

You can also compare the absolute value of the temperature measurements. |10.83| < |105.4|. As the negative value decrease, the absolute value increases.

So the temperature of Liquid B > Temperature of liquid A.

I hope this helps!

Answer 2

Answer: Liquid B is warmer.

Explanation:

The data that we have is:

Temperature A = -105.4° C

Temperature B = -10.83° C

We want to know which liquid is warmer, this is equivalent to see which temperature is bigger, Ta or Tb.

Now, you can see that temperature A is larger in module, but this is a negative number.

When we work with negative numbers, the bigger ones are the ones closer to zero. This means that for example, -1 is larger than - 150.

From this, we can conclude that Liquid B is warmer.

Another way to see it is with a change of units.

If we have A degrees Celcius, and we want to to transform it into Kelvins, we must add 273.15°.

Then we have:

Ta = (-105.4° + 273.15°) K = 167.75 K

Tb = (-10.83 ´273.15°) = 262.35 K

where you can see that liquid B has a larger temperature.