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Newtons Law of Cooling Solutions
Newtons Law of Cooling Solutions
Newtons Law of Cooling Solutions
S. F. Ellermeyer
1. A thermometer is taken from a room that is 20 C to the outdoors where
the temperature is 5 C. After one minute, the thermometer reads 12 C.
Use Newtons Law of Cooling to answer the following questions.
(a) What will the reading on the thermometer be after one more
minute?
(b) When will the thermometer read 6 C?
Solution: If T is the thermometer temperature, then Newtons Law of
Cooling tells us that
dT
= k (5
dt
T (0) = 20.
T)
kt
T)
where t1 is some time other than 0. Then, from the rst two equations in
the model, we obtain
T = Ts + (T0 Ts ) e kt
and from the third equation we obtain
Ts + (T0
Ts ) e
1
kt1
= T1 .
Thus
(T0
kt1
Ts ) e
= T1
Ts
which gives us
=
T1
T0
Ts
Ts
ekt1 =
T0
T1
Ts
Ts
kt1
or
or
k=
1
ln
t1
T0
T1
Ts
Ts
The latter equation gives us the value of k. However, note that, in most
problems that we deal with, it is not really necessary to nd the value of k.
Since the term e kt that appears in the solution of Newtons Law of Cooling
can be written as
t=t1
e kt = e kt1
,
we really just need (in most situations) to know the value of e kt1 , and this
value has been obtained in the work done above. In particular, the solution
of Newtons Law of Cooling,
T = Ts + (T0
can be written as
T = Ts + (T0
kt
Ts ) e
kt1 t=t1
Ts ) e
or as
T = Ts + (T0
Ts )
T1
T0
Ts
Ts
t=t1
Returning now to the problem at hand (with the thermometer), we see that
the temperature function for the thermometer is
T = 5 + 15
7
15
7
15
= 20
and
T (1) = 5 + 15
7
15
= 12.
To nd what the thermometer will read two minutes after being taken outside, we compute
2
7
8:3
T (2) = 5 + 15
15
which tells us that the thermometer will read about 8:3 C two minutes after
being taken outside.
Finally, to determine when the thermometer will read 6 C, we solve the
equation
t
7
5 + 15
= 6.
15
The stepbystep solution of this equation is
15
ln
7
15
7
15
7
15
t ln
=1
=
t
7
15
1
15
= ln
1
15
1
15
ln (1=15)
t=
ln (7=15)
= ln
3:5.
Thus, the thermometer will reach 6 C after being outside for about 3:5
minutes.
Let us remember, in solving the upcoming problems, that the solution of
the problem
dT
= k (Ts
dt
T (0) = T0
T (t1 ) = T1
3
T)
T)
where time 0 is midnight. The solution of this boundary value problem (from
the work done in problem 1 above) is
T = 20 + 50
3
5
t=2
Note (for the purpose of a reasonableness check) that this formula gives us
T (0) = 20 + 50
and
3
5
0=2
= 70
2=2
3
= 50.
5
To nd when the temperature in the house will reach 40 F , we must solve
the equation
t=2
3
20 + 50
= 40.
5
The solution of this equation is
T (2) = 20 + 50
t=2
ln (2=5)
ln (3=5)
3:6.
Thus, the temperature in the house will reach 40 F a little after 3:30 a.m.
4
T)
3
5
25
2t
To check this formula for reasonableness, we observe that the formula gives
us
2(0)
3
T (0) = 70 25
= 45
5
and
1
2
= 70
25
3
5
2( 12 )
= 55.
1
2
= 70
25
= 70
25
28:3 F .
5
3
5
5
3
2(
1
2
T)
whose solution is
T = 50 + 20
1
2
t=2
We would like to nd the value of t for which T (t) = 98:6. Solving the
equation
t=2
1
= 98:6
50 + 20
2
gives us
ln (48:6=20)
ln (1=2)
t=2
2:56.
It appears that this person was murdered at about 5:30 P.M. or so.
Here is a graph of the function
T = 50 + 20
over the time interval
2:56
2:56.
1
2
t=2
90
80
body temperature
70
60
-2
-1
1 in hours
time
5. John and Maria are having dinner and each orders a cup of coee. John
cools his coee with three tablespoons of cream. They wait ten minutes
and then Maria cools her coee with three tablespoons of cream. The
two then begin to drink. Who drinks the hotter coee? (Assume that
adding three tablespoons of cream to coee immediately cools the coee
by 10 F .)
Solution: Let t0 be the time that John adds cream and let t1 be the time
(ten minutes after t0 ) that Maria adds cream.
At time t0 , Johns coee is 10 F cooler than Marias coee. During the
ten minute time interval from time t0 to time t1 , both Johns and Marias
coees are cooling (getting closer to room temperature). However, during this
ten second time interval, Johns coee is cooling more slowly than Marias
coee, and Marias coee is always warmer than Johns coee. At time t1 ,
there must be less than 10 F dierence between the coee temperatures.
Thus, when Maria adds cream, it drops her coees temperature below that
of Johns coee temperature, so John drinks the warmer coee.