73.5k views
4 votes
14. On a hot day in your hot kitchen, you decide to work with the refrigerator door open in an attempt to have the refrigerator cool the room. Which of the following best describes the result of this decision? Explain your answer.

User NeitoFR
by
4.4k points

1 Answer

2 votes

Answer:

Option D: It iwill actually warm the room

Step-by-step explanation:

To complete your given question the available options are:

A. It will cool the room very effectively

B. It will cool the room, but inefficiently

C. It will not change anything

D. It will actually warm the room.

This is a fun and somewhat tricky case. So, let us first understand a few principles in order to answer our question. To begin with, the basic operating principle of the fridge is to take the hot air from the surrounding environment and cool it to the desired temperature in order to sustain all products inside the fridge. It can also be thought as 'transferring' heat from the interior (i.e. inside the fridge) to the exterior (i.e. outside the fridge and into the surrounding). In fact if you check the back of a fridge during operation, you will noticed a much higher temperature in that area. Which is due to the heat removed by the 'fridge operation system' in order to cool that interior air. Therefore, this heat must transfer somewhere else, which typically ends up on the little fan located on the back of the fridge. We can also think of it in terms of the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics, which essentially tells us that the system (in this case the fridge and its surrounding) MUST reach an Equillibrium.

Therefore, when you do open the door of the fridge, you might initially (and for an instant almost) feel this 'cool' air coming out; thinking the surrounding air should soon cool down as well. But, due to our discussion above along with the principles of the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics, and considering the fridge operation over time, the more cool air the fridge looses, the more the fridge system works to cool the air, thus the more the fans of the fridge work, which results to increasing heat getting 'dumped' by the fridge system and thus to the surrounding.

Consequently when you open the fridge door you will actually warm the room. (i.e. Option D).

User Teovald
by
5.4k points