Use Newton's Law of Cooling, T = C + (T_0 - C)e^(kt), to solve the problem. Thanks?!

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1 Answer
Mar 22, 2018

I get 35^@ "F", but you'll have to fix the equation.


Well, for one, the equation is wrong... Let's derive it to show it... The change in temperature over time is given by:

(dT)/(dt) = -k(T - C)

where C is the surrounding ambient temperature (a constant) and T is the current temperature. k is the rate constant of temperature decay.

Separation of variables gives the integration to be:

int_(T_0)^(T) 1/(T - C)dT = -kint_(0)^(t)dt

ln((T - C)/(T_0 - C)) = -kt

where T_0 is the initial temperature and t_0 = 0.

Thus, the equation should be:

color(green)(T = C + (T_0 - C)e^(-kt))

Here, we have the surrounding temperature to be C = 0^@ "F", and the initial temperature of the coffee to be 102^@ "F". Those are both constants.

So we have:

barul|stackrel(" ")(" "T(t) = 102e^(-kt)" ")| in ""^@ "F"

We are told that T = 52.5^@ "F" at "t = 8 min", which allows us to find the rate constant k. Then we can find T at t = "13 min".

T("8 min") = 52.5^@ "F" = (102^@ "F")e^(-k cdot "8 min")

0.5147 = e^(-8k)

ln0.5147 = -8k

For this first-order process then, the rate constant (which is a constant for a constant surrounding temperature C) is:

k = -(ln0.5147)/8 "min"^(-1) = "0.0830 min"^(-1)

Now we can find T at any other time.

color(blue)(T("13 min")) = 102^@ "F" cdot e^(-"0.0830 min"^(-1) cdot "13 min")

= 34.7^@ "F"

~~ color(blue)(35^@ "F")