During a class discussion on why a metal spoon placed in hot soup quickly becomes warm to the touch, four students make the statements below.
I. “Atoms in the spoon move toward the soup, carrying energy with them.”
II. “Energy is transferred because faster atoms in the soup collide with slower atoms in the spoon.”
III. “Once the spoon’s handle is warm, collisions stop because the atoms have run out of energy.”
IV. “At thermal equilibrium, the atoms in the spoon and soup all have the same speed.”
(a) Identify each statement that contains one or more inaccuracies regarding microscopic energy transfer. List the statement numbers only.
(b) For every statement you identified in part (a), rewrite the statement so that it accurately reflects the microscopic processes occurring.
(c) For one of the corrected statements, provide a detailed explanation—at the level of individual atomic collisions—of how the revised idea leads to the observed macroscopic outcome (the spoon handle warming).