Well, maybe the plate’s made of some weird material or something.
My first response would be “metamaterials”. Then it would be an extremely excited feeling, because the teacher just Violated Thermodynamics™. Then it would be confusion, and I’d stick up my hand and say “the hot air was blown towards the far side” or something.
We don’t tend to question the premise when the Trusted Authority Figure is asking us questions, because our prior estimate of that is very unlikely. The chance of it actually being heat conduction in some way feels higher than the teacher faking the situation. The chance of me being completely wrong about Physics feels higher than the teacher lying, and “heat conduction” is my easiest way out, whilst saving face.
My first response would be “metamaterials”. Then it would be an extremely excited feeling, because the teacher just Violated Thermodynamics™. Then it would be confusion, and I’d stick up my hand and say “the hot air was blown towards the far side” or something.
We don’t tend to question the premise when the Trusted Authority Figure is asking us questions, because our prior estimate of that is very unlikely. The chance of it actually being heat conduction in some way feels higher than the teacher faking the situation. The chance of me being completely wrong about Physics feels higher than the teacher lying, and “heat conduction” is my easiest way out, whilst saving face.