Physics of beer

[PbFoot]

Does the difference in temperature between two objects effect the rate of change of temperature?

Eg:

I put a warm (21 degrees C) beer in the fridge, which is set to 3 degrees C. At the same time I put an identical warm beer in the freezer, which is at -18 degrees C. My preferred beer drinking temperature is 3 degrees C. Will the freezer beer cool faster because of the larger temperature difference, or will they both reach 3 degrees C at the same time?

- PbFoot

[MattusMaximus]

This reminds me of a book on my shelf - Clouds in a Glass of Beer by Bohren :)

As a way of answering your question, I suggest you take a look at Newton's Law of Cooling. Here's a nice online simulation of it. (http://demonstrations.wolfram.com/NewtonsLawOfCooling/)

[Unlike a Bull]

Considering that warm beer gets you just as drunk as cold beer, I would say your question is irrelevant.

Seriously though, think about it like this: Assume you like your roast cooked to a medium temperature. One day you cook a roast in a 150C oven for two hours and you get a perfect medium. The next day you cook one in a 300C oven. Would you cook it for two hours or would you assume it would cook faster? Your beer is the same concept except instead of heat going from a hot oven into a (relatively) cold roast, heat is going from a (relatively) hot beer to a cold fridge.

Also, I disagree with your avatar. You need to replace that infinity symbol with the letter "c".

[Gord_in_Toronto]

Heat_transfer#Newton.27s_law_of_cooling

More than you ever wanted to know. :D

[shadron]

More heat is transferred by the larger temperature difference. Assuming the beer and the container it is in are the same in the two cases, the heat conductance and heat capacity of both should be the same, so the lower temperature freezer will cool the beer through a given temperature difference faster.

Think of the temperature as a voltage trying to charge a capacitor through a resistor; the greater voltage will charge the capacitor through to a given voltage faster. Well, at least that would be obvious to an EE. :)

[portlandatheist]

The mythybusters dealt with the fastest way to cool beer. Without access to anything extravagant or doing anything extreme like using a fire extinguisher, the best practical way to cool a beer quickly is to put it in ice water with salt. Water conducts better than air.
Temperature difference will affect the speed of heat transfer, but the conductivity of the medium is also very important. Consider this simple experiment:
Place one ice cube in your hand and one ice cube on a metal surface at room temperature and watch which one melts sooner despite the fact your hand is much warmer.

[wackyvorlon]

Of course, the reason salt water/ice works better than water and ice, is that the salt depresses the freezing point of the water.

[TheDaver]

Of course, the reason salt water/ice works better than water and ice, is that the salt depresses the freezing point of the water.
And the reason why that’s better than ice cubes is that you have the same temperature and heat transfer coefficient, but much better contact.

[fuelair]

This reminds me of a book on my shelf - Clouds in a Glass of Beer by Bohren :)

As a way of answering your question, I suggest you take a look at Newton's Law of Cooling. Here's a nice online simulation of it. (http://demonstrations.wolfram.com/NewtonsLawOfCooling/)
Clouds is indeed a fun book!!!:)

[fuelair]

Heat_transfer#Newton.27s_law_of_cooling

More than you ever wanted to know. :D

Not me!! I downloaded Mathematica immediatley!! Thanks MM!!!:):):)

[DavidS]

The mythybusters dealt with the fastest way to cool beer. Without access to anything extravagant or doing anything extreme like using a fire extinguisher, the best practical way to cool a beer quickly is to put it in ice water with salt. Water conducts better than air.
Temperature difference will affect the speed of heat transfer, but the conductivity of the medium is also very important. Consider this simple experiment:
Place one ice cube in your hand and one ice cube on a metal surface at room temperature and watch which one melts sooner despite the fact your hand is much warmer.
A more frequently practical application of that effect is how to manage your cooler full of beer:

- Leaving the drain open will keep your drinks cold quite a bit longer. Accumulating meltwater, denser and more conductive than air and more convective than ice, increases the rate of heat leakage into the cooler. Once the drinks get chilled, that's the heat that melts your ice and warms your drinks. The difference can be dramatic; with the drain closed I'll melt 30# of ice in my 94qt Igloo over a day's fishing, but with the drain open I'll have ice left from a single 8# bag.

- If you're in a hurry to get things cooled down, a closed drain and ice+water slush will chill your warm drinks a bit faster. Again, the dense, conductive, mobile water extracts heat faster from the cans/bottles than if they were nestled into drained ice. Whether the difference is worth losing ice faster to external heat leakage is an exercise for the reader (you can always drain the water away after the initial chill).

[ChrisC]

- Leaving the drain open will keep your drinks cold quite a bit longer. Accumulating meltwater, denser and more conductive than air and more convective than ice, increases the rate of heat leakage into the cooler. Once the drinks get chilled, that's the heat that melts your ice and warms your drinks. The difference can be dramatic; with the drain closed I'll melt 30# of ice in my 94qt Igloo over a day's fishing, but with the drain open I'll have ice left from a single 8# bag.

This experiment needs to be replicated to collect more data. I'll go dig out my flyrod.

How do we spread science throughout the land? As usual, the answer is beer.

[Jaggy Bunnet]

How do we spread science throughout the land? As usual, the answer is beer.

If that wasn't the answer, then the question would need to be redefined until it was.

[UncaYimmy]

http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/109/does-stuff-cool-faster-in-the-freezer-than-in-the-fridge

Now, in studying Fourier's Law, we are led to one inescapable conclusion--the bigger the difference between the beer temperature and the fridge temperature, the more heat is transferred per second. The more heat is transferred per second, the faster the beer gets cold. Therefore it makes sense to put the beer in the coldest part of the fridge, namely the freezer.

Lot's of great stuff on The Straight Dope. I own all the books. Informative and fun to read.