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A thermometer reading 7C is brought into a room with a constant temperature of 36C. If the thermometer reads 17C after 4 ​minutes, what will it read after being in the room for 6 ​minutes? For 11 ​minutes?

User Vibert
by
7.5k points

1 Answer

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According to Newton's Law of Cooling, the rate of the cooling is proportional to the temperature difference between the object and its surroundings.

In other words, if an object at a higher temperature say

T

0

is moved to a surrounding at a lower temperature

T

s

, the rate of cooling is directly proportional to the difference in temperature of te two i.e.

d

T

d

t

=

k

(

T

0

T

s

)

. This means that temperature

T

t

of the object at

t

time is given by

T

t

=

T

s

+

(

T

0

T

s

)

e

k

t

Here we have

T

0

=

23

,

T

s

=

15

and at

t

=

60

, we have

T

60

=

11

- here we have used

60

as we intend to use time in seconds.

Hence

11

=

15

+

(

23

(

15

)

)

e

60

k

or

26

=

38

e

60

k

or

e

60

k

=

26

38

and hence

k

=

ln

(

26

38

)

60

=

0.00632482702

(a) After

5

more minutes i.e. after

360

seconds, temperature would be

T

360

=

15

+

38

e

360

×

0.00632482702

=

15

+

3.9

=

11.1

(b) Let the temperature be

14

C

after

t

seconds, then

14

=

15

+

38

e

0.00632482702

t

or

e

0.00632482702

t

=

15

14

38

=

0.026315789

i.e.

t

=

ln

0.026315789

0.00632482702

575

Hence after

575

seconds i.e.

8

minutes and

35

seconds temperature would be

14

C

User Richard Knife
by
7.5k points