Thermal energy is proportional to temperature and to mass. A kettle has much more water in it than a cup does. Thus, although each molecule or gram of water in the kettle has less thermal energy than each molecule or gram of water in the cup, the kettle as a whole has more thermal energy than the cup as a whole.
It’s due to volume!
A smaller container can have less energy as there is less energy contained by volume. A larger container can have more even if the energy per cubic inch is less, due to the total volume.
Thermal energy is a measure of the total energy of all the molecules in the material added together. As David says a large object has a lot of molecules so the total thermal energy can be large.
Hotness is a measure of the average energy (kinetic) of the molecules in a material and so a small object -tea in cup- will be at a high temperature ‘hot’ because its molecules are moving quickly, but there aren’t many of them, so not much thermal energy.
Quantity of heat, an iceberg has millions of times more heat than a hot cup of tea,The hot tea has a litttle heat concentrated in a small volume,The Iceberg has much more heat but it is spread out into millions of tons of ice so a small volume of ice is cold.
Thermal energy is proportional to temperature and to mass. A kettle has much more water in it than a cup does. Thus, although each molecule or gram of water in the kettle has less thermal energy than each molecule or gram of water in the cup, the kettle as a whole has more thermal energy than the cup as a whole.
It’s due to volume!
A smaller container can have less energy as there is less energy contained by volume. A larger container can have more even if the energy per cubic inch is less, due to the total volume.
Thermal energy is a measure of the total energy of all the molecules in the material added together. As David says a large object has a lot of molecules so the total thermal energy can be large.
Hotness is a measure of the average energy (kinetic) of the molecules in a material and so a small object -tea in cup- will be at a high temperature ‘hot’ because its molecules are moving quickly, but there aren’t many of them, so not much thermal energy.
Quantity of heat, an iceberg has millions of times more heat than a hot cup of tea,The hot tea has a litttle heat concentrated in a small volume,The Iceberg has much more heat but it is spread out into millions of tons of ice so a small volume of ice is cold.