MCQ Detailed View

When you touch different materials during winter, you often notice that some feel much colder than others, even though they are at the same temperature. For example, an iron pipe feels colder than a wooden surface. This difference is not because the iron is actually colder, but because of thermal conductivity — the ability of a material to conduct heat.

Iron is a good conductor of heat. When your warm hand touches an iron pipe, heat quickly flows from your skin into the metal. This rapid heat transfer makes your hand lose warmth fast, and you experience the sensation of coldness.

Wood, on the other hand, is a poor conductor of heat, also called a non-conductor or insulator. When you touch wood, heat from your hand does not flow away rapidly. As a result, your skin retains more heat, and the wood feels relatively warmer compared to iron, even though both objects are at the same room temperature.

This phenomenon is a classic example of heat transfer by conduction. Materials with high conductivity (like metals: iron, copper, aluminum) can quickly transfer heat, while insulating materials (like wood, rubber, plastic) resist heat flow. That is why wooden handles are often used on cookware, as they do not become as hot as the metal part.

Understanding this principle helps explain many everyday observations, such as why metal seats feel colder than wooden ones in winter or why ice melts faster in a metal container than in a wooden bowl. This question belongs to Physics, specifically in the area of thermal properties of matter.