Like a microwave but to cool things!
In: Physics
When heated, atoms move much faster creating friction which creates heat. The issue is that it is much easier to heat things up than it is to cool things down. Solid items release their heat quicker and cool down quicker, versus liquids heat and cool much slower.
The issue is that if you heat something up too hot to eat/drink, it is typically only in the 150-170ºF (65-75C) range you give it a few minutes for it to cool down some (usually around 100-120F/35-45C) and then consume it. If you were to get it too hot where it boils (212F/100C), it can ruin the flavor properties. Our food and drinks (and most of the world) are typically much closer to freezing than it is boiling, but at the same time there is enough in nature keeping things from cooling down too fast or warming up too fast.
The problem is to cool something down quickly typically requires at or below freezing, but to stop the process before it freezes since many liquids lose their flavor properties when frozen due to breaking the molecules that make up the flavor/plant properties. This is why many people use ice cubes and try to drink it quicker before the ice melts and waters it down.
There are some newer items like lightweight hollow stainless steel balls/cubes that you can keep in the freezer and drop into drinks, and then wash them off when done.
It’s called ice.
The heat energy that’s already in your juice needs to get transferred to something else that’s already cold. The fastest practical way to do that is physical contact. The only other option I can think of would be to use a vacuum pump to drop the pressure until it starts boiling. The vapor would then carry heat away from the remaining liquid.
A microwave heats food by shining a really powerful invisible light at your food, the light that gets absorbed by the food heats it up. You can’t make something cold the same way.
TL;DR: It’s much harder to remove energy quickly than to impart energy quickly.
To cool an item, we have to lower the temperature of what’s around it. This could be by removing heat energy from the air (like a freezer / refrigerator) or putting the thing on ice. That’s about the only method we have.
For heating an item, we can use chemical reactions (MRE heaters and HotHands), electricity (ovens and lightbulbs), combustion (grills, propane heating units, and fire), radiation (microwaves and sunlight), and a lot of others.
To make something colder, you kinda got to wait for it to decide to be cold. It’s a lot easier to convince something to get hotter.
It’s called an ice bath. You can’t force “cold” into something, heat only flows from hot to cold. When you want the temp to go down you need something that’s already colder. Microwave ovens force radio waves into something to make it hot.
There are gadgets to quickly cool liquids that spin the liquid while exposing it to cooling to ensure equalcooling. I think the issue is much more difficult when you try to apply it to other, not liquid, objects. They could go through thermal shock and crack or freeze unevenly.
Microwaves work by exciting water molecules inside of whatever you place inside. Basically speeding up the atoms that make up the molecules. The molecules heat up because of this.
That being said, there is not a good way to quickly slow down atoms. The closest you will come is a commercial flash freezer, but even those are limited by the mass of whatever you put in there.
In other words, microwaves heat up food from the inside out, but we do not have a way to do the same in reverse. You can add heat easily, but you cannot take heat away easily.
Oh they definitely exist, just mostly in larger commercial kitchens. Blast chillers! Very expensive. They also take a good deal of time, compared to the reverse action of ovens or microwaves. Or there’s the much more economical ice wands (best for large batches of soup and similar liquids).
There is, however it is a super cold freezer gizmo. The kitchen I used to work in had one. You’d push a rack of hot food into it and close the door. Huge fans blew freezing cold air over the trays rapidly bringing down the temps. In like 5 minutes food went from 350F to 65F. It was also a great place to hang out in when it got too hot.
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