The textbook states Common household appliances such as dish

The textbook states, \"Common household appliances such as dishwashers, microwave ovens, refrigerators, humidifiers, clothes dryers, toasters, water heaters, irons, and pressure cookers rely on principles of thermodynamics for their operation.\" (Hagen, pg 186) Choose one of these, or another household appliance, and describe what thermodynamic principles are at work.

Solution

Taking the example of a Water Heater:

Here the basic principles that are involved are:

Conduction & Convection mode of heat transfer.

Working:

The coil gets heated due to resistive heating of the coil upon passage of electric current.

Now, when the water passes through the heated coil, it gets hot due to conductive heat transfer from the hot surface of the coil.

This section of water transfers its heat to other surrounding molecules of water by Convective mode of heat transfer.

This process continues until the temperature difference between the coil surface andd water becomes zero.