Question

Give reasons for the following observation: The smell of hot sizzling food reaches you several metres away, but to get the smell from cold food you have to go close. Why?

Answer 1

The smell of hot sizzling food reaches you several meters away, but you have to go close to get the smell of cold food.

Reason

Kinetic Energy

• Particles of hot sizzling food possess large kinetic energy and diffuse in the air rapidly and reach several meters away.
• Particles of cold food possess less kinetic energy and are not able to reach several meters away.

Temperature

Particles of matter possess kinetic energy and keep moving constantly.

• At lower temperatures, particles have low kinetic energy and thus move slowly. Particles in cold food have low kinetic energy due to low temperature.
• At higher temperatures, particles have high kinetic energy and move faster; hence, the particles of hot vapors from hot food move faster.

Due to the leading factors of kinetic energy and temperature, the smell of hot sizzling food reaches you several meters away, but you have to go close to get the smell from cold food.