A student touches a freshly baked cake that was taken out of the oven. Which best explains why the cake feels hot?

The cake feels hot because its molecules have greater average kinetic energy and move faster, on average, than the molecules in the student’s skin. When the student touches the cake, thermal energy flows from the hotter cake to the cooler skin. Choice B, “Molecules in the cake are moving faster than molecules in the skin,” best explains the sensation.

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