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Item CL015002: Warm air that is blown across a cool room causes the thermal energy on the other side of the room to increase.

The air in the room shown below is cool. The fire is warming the air near the fireplace, and the fan is blowing the warm air across the room.

As the warm air moves from one side of the room to the other, does the amount of thermal energy at the other side of the room increase?

  1. No, because air cannot carry thermal energy as it moves
  2. No, because air in one place in the room has the same amount of thermal energy as an equal amount of air anywhere else in the room
  3. Yes, because the warm air near the fire had more thermal energy than the colder air that was across the room
  4. It depends on how warm the air is because only very warm air can carry thermal energy as it moves
Distribution of responses
Answer Choice
Overall
Grades
Gender
Primary Language
 
n = 2170
6–8
n = 1091
9–12
n = 1068
Male
n = 1041
Female
n = 1057
English
n = 1835
Other
n = 240
A. 18% 17% 18% 19% 16% 17% 23%
B. 22% 22% 21% 21% 23% 21% 23%
C. 44% 42% 46% 43% 46% 45% 34%
D. 17% 19% 14% 17% 16% 16% 20%