For instance, I make myself some hot coffee and I want to turn it to iced coffee. Stirring it seems to cool it down much faster than letting the ice just sit in the coffee, however, from what I have read, stirring the ice melts the ice faster and more even though it cools it down faster. Why? Is this even correct?
Also, would the ice just sitting in the hot coffee melt roughly the same amount as the stirred once the coffees reaches the desired cold temperatures? Idk we can make one up, coffee from 160°f to 40°f, I guess. I also generally fill my coffee cup completely with ice as I’m sure the amount of ice changes this.
I hope this makes sense and I tagged the question correctly. Thank you,
In: 14
There are two related areas of science at play here. Thermodynamics and Heat Transfer.
There are two states to the system here: “before ice is added” and “after the ice melts and the beverage reaches equilibrium temperature”. Thermodynamics can be used to determine the equilibrium temperature. Heat transfer can be used to describe the temperature transit. Simply, thermodynamics defines the starting point and the destination, and heat transfer defines the speed of the journey.
Thermodynamics defines the energy needed to get your car from A (hot coffee) to B (iced coffee), the “gas” for the journey, and heat transfer is the “gas pedal”. When you stir, you hit the accelerator, you get to B faster, and you run out of gas when you get there. If you don’t stir, you are simply letting the car idle all the way to B and you still run out of gas when you get there.
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