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Item NG081004: The total energy inside a closed cooler filled with ice and a can of soda stays the same even though the can of soda gets colder, because the amount of energy that the can of soda lost is equal to the amount of energy that the ice gained.

In the morning, a student puts a warm can of soda in a cooler filled with ice.

He closes the cooler.  A few hours later, the can of soda is colder.  What happened to the total amount of energy in the cooler containing the can of soda and the ice?  (Assume that no energy is transferred into or out of the cooler after it is closed.)

  1. The total amount of energy increased because the energy that the can of soda transferred to the ice is greater than the energy that the ice lost.
  2. The total amount of energy decreased because the can of soda has less energy than it started with, and the amount of energy the ice has did not change.
  3. The total amount of energy stayed the same because the amount of energy that the can of soda transferred to the ice is equal to the amount of energy that the ice gained.
  4. The total amount of energy stayed the same because being warmer or colder does not affect the amount of energy objects have.
Distribution of Responses
Chart showing distrubtion of responses for Item 081004
Scale Score for Item Difficulty
(200[Easy]-800[Difficult])
521
Students Responding Correctly
Group Correct Total Percent
Overall 363 1128 32%
Grades
  4–5N/AN/AN/A
  6–8 175 667 26%
  9–12 188 461 41%
Gender
  Male17655532%
  Female18255733%
Primary Language
  English33099033%
  Other2511422%

View data table