Answer:
The correct answer is the third option: The kinetic energy of the water molecules decreases.
Explanation:
Temperature is, in depth, a statistical value; kind of an average of the particles movement in any physical system (such as a glass filled with water). Kinetic energy, for sure, is the energy resulting from movement (technically depending on mass and velocity of a system; in other words, the faster something moves, the greater its kinetic energy.
Since temperature is related to the total average random movement in a system, and so is the kinetic energy (related to movement through velocity), as the thermometer measures <u>less temperature</u>, that would mean that the particles (in this case: water particles) are <u>moving slowly</u>, so that: the slower something moves, the lower its kinetic energy.
<u>In summary:</u> temperature tells about how fast are moving and colliding the particles within a system, and since it is <em>directly proportional</em> to the amount of movement, it can be related (also <em>directly proportional</em>) to the kinectic energy.