Putting Coke in Freezer to cool faster? - Page 2

durron597 · #11 09-09-2005, 01:24 PM

Newton's Law of Cooling

Basically what it says is that the farther the object's temperature is from the ambient tempeture, the exponentially faster it approaches the ambient temperature. So as an object gets closer, it slows down.

Thus, if you put the soda can in the freezer it has farther to go and thus cools faster.

ScottyP431 · #12 09-09-2005, 01:24 PM

Its not a question of "is the fridge faster", its "is the freezer noticeably quicker". Since the differance in temperature is around like 17 degrees, it has been argued (normally by the smarter of the two people arguing which is what threw me initially) that the differance is negligable. It has also been claimed ( and i have no idea the truth to this) that the aluminum can limits the speed at which heat can be drawn out, meaning unless the temperature differential was much greater, there would be no differance. As people apparently aren't convinced by "its colder, duh" i was hoping someone knew a more scientiffic/detailed explanation.

CrazyEyez · #13 09-09-2005, 01:24 PM

Have one friend jump in a pool of 50-degree water and the other in a pool of 35-degree water and see which gets hypothermia first.

gulebjorn · #14 09-09-2005, 01:27 PM

It's simple really. Heat transfer depends on a few things: the temperature gradient, the "heat resistance" of the material it passes through, and the heat resistance of the transitions between different materials.

so in this case: the heat resistance of the transition between fridge - coke can (ex. it could be benificial to stack frozen stuff around the can)

the resistance of the can (nothing you can do bout that)

the heat condictivity of the fluid itself (eg. it could cool faster if you take it out every now and then and stir the fluid a little)

the temperature gradient: the bigger the difference between temp of the fluid and the environment, the better the heat transfer

So yeah, it cools faster in the freezer.

J.A.Sucker · #15 09-09-2005, 01:27 PM

The freezer is cold, for sure, so yeah.

Better yet is to get ice water mixed with salt. If you do this, the water gets much colder (freezing point depression) and the fact that it's liquid on the metal can gives you better heat transfer than the freezer.

Better still is to use rubbing alcohol in ice. This gets quite cold, and I don't think the rubbing alcohol is too bad for you to have in contact with your can of coke. You could use cheap vodka or everclear, too, but that's a waste of booze.

offTopic · #16 09-09-2005, 01:28 PM

Obviously the freezer will cool the soda faster...I mean, there's no light in the freezer, right? So, when you shut the door and the light stays on in the fridge (you know, lights emit heat, right, like when you touch a lit light bulb - OUCH!) the light prevents the soda from cooling as fast as the freezer. Now, if you removed the light bulb from inside the fridge, it might be close.

bravos1 · #17 09-09-2005, 01:30 PM

[ QUOTE ]
Have one friend jump in a pool of 50-degree water and the other in a pool of 35-degree water and see which gets hypothermia first.

[/ QUOTE ]

Prop bet? [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

CrazyEyez · #18 09-09-2005, 01:32 PM

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Have one friend jump in a pool of 50-degree water and the other in a pool of 35-degree water and see which gets hypothermia first.

[/ QUOTE ]

Prop bet? [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

[/ QUOTE ]
My money's on the tennis pro.

Clearly the question should be whether it is harder to drink a gallon of milk that has been in the freezer for 15 minutes than one that has been in the fridge.

kyro · #19 09-09-2005, 01:32 PM

I would think you would need a degree in physics/chemistry to really know the answer.

Or you could just not be a [censored] dumbass. Of course it gets colder faster. You've got dumb friends.

bravos1 · #20 09-09-2005, 01:35 PM

[ QUOTE ]
Newton's Law of Cooling

Basically what it says is that the farther the object's temperature is from the ambient tempeture, the exponentially faster it approaches the ambient temperature. So as an object gets closer, it slows down.

Thus, if you put the soda can in the freezer it has farther to go and thus cools faster.

[/ QUOTE ]

Yes, but this is only true when the test objects are the same temp. I had an idiot of a friend in college (no idea how he even got accepted) who used this to try and prove that hot water will freeze faster than cold water if we put them in the freezer. I laughed and laughed. He was so adamant about it that we decided to run an experiment, but not before I got my bet in for a week of lunch. Let's just say that the following week, my food bills were a lot less!

There are many sudies about this and in fact many do show that warmer water DOES in fact freeze faster than colder water SOMETIMES depending on the situations. This is called the Mpemba effect. But my friend was an idiot and REALLY wanted to prove his point so he put his water in the microwave for 5 minutes to get it almost boiling and I took mine out of the water jug in the fridge. It wasn't even a fair fight! I did not give him any clue that he was actually onto something as he was taking something he heard and making it extreme which blew the properties of the effect out of proportion.