The body transfers heat to an ice pack, causing the ice to melt. This illustrates which heat transfer mechanism?

• A. Conduction
• B. Convection
• C. Radiation
• D. Evaporation

Answer: (A)

Heat transfer by conduction occurs when two objects are in direct contact and energy moves from the warmer object to the cooler one through molecular interactions at the boundary. In this case, the warm body touches the ice pack, so heat flows into the ice. That energy goes into melting some of the ice, which uses latent heat of fusion, keeping the ice-water mixture around 0°C until melting progresses. Conduction is the mechanism here because the heat is transferred via direct contact at the interface. Convection would require moving a fluid to carry heat, radiation would transfer heat without contact, and evaporation involves a surface changing from liquid to gas, not melting ice.