Quote:
Originally posted by MadDogMe
I was trying to imagine ALu having the same density as Cu when I asked the 'BillA choker' question  , if it was somehow compessed to the size & shape of Cu, I thought it would cool down afterheat the same.
Is heat storage directly related to density?, how far apart are ALu & Cu with conduction?, I know Cu is better but by how much?, do you think density plays any part in that?. is Lead any good for conducting?.
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Ah, more potential sources for confusion. "Storage" related properties are tied to mass, ala specific heat. "Transfer" related properties are tied to geometry, ala conductivity.
Density has no inherent role in determining specific heat. In pure forms, aluminum's specific heat is actually higher than copper's. As you have already noted, however, equal size blocks of each show that aluminum cools more quickly. If you could somehow compress aluminum to match copper's density (without changing any other property
), then an aluminum block would hold more thermal energy than a copper one.
Lead sucks for heat transfer, as do most other metals in comparison to silver, copper, gold, and aluminum.
If you really want to get into the "why" of all this, you'll need someone with skills much different than my own. This gets into the realm of crystalline structure, atomic considerations and a whole heckuva lot of other stuff that I hardly know the basics of.