If you touch a hot ceramic coffee mug with your hands, this exemplifies which type of heat transfer?

Touching a hot ceramic coffee mug with your hands demonstrates conduction, which is the process of heat transfer through direct contact between materials. In this case, the heat from the mug is transferred directly to your skin through the physical contact, causing you to feel the temperature rise rapidly.

Conduction occurs because the molecules in the hot ceramic are vibrating more intensely due to the higher temperature, and when your hand makes contact with the mug, these vibrating molecules collide with the molecules in your skin, transferring energy and heat. This direct transfer of thermal energy exemplifies conduction effectively.

In contrast, convection refers to heat transfer through the movement of fluids (liquids or gases), radiation involves the transfer of heat through electromagnetic waves without a medium, and induction pertains to the transfer of energy through electromagnetic fields, often in cooking or heating applications but without direct contact. Hence, conduction is the most accurate representation of the scenario described.