Join our 4-H teen as he steps into the world of thermodynamics.
What are we learning about today?
Have you ever grabbed a soda and realized that it's warm? Lucky for you, using our knowledge of heat transfer, we can cool it down at record speed.
There are four ways that heat transfer happens:
- Conduction – when things touch, like when you hold a hot mug and your hand warms up.
- Convection – heat moving through a fluid, like air or water, currents carrying heat away.
- Evaporation – cools things down when liquid turns to vapor, like sweat on your skin.
- Radiation – heat traveling through waves, like sunlight warming your face.
Fun fact: air and water don't transfer heat the same way. Water molecules are way more tightly packed, which means they bump into objects more often and offer a faster heat transfer.
What do you need?
- Cans of soda at room temperature
- Instant-read thermometer
- 2 styrofoam coolers
- Ice cubes
- Water
- Clock or timer
- Plastic wrap
Try it yourself.
- Set up the coolers.
- Cooler #1 gets filled with ice only.
- Cooler #2 gets ice plus water, just until the ice is covered.
- Let's get testing!
- Record the temperature of everything. Each soda can, the ice-only bath, and the ice-water bath.
- Place cans in each of the coolers.
- Start your timer and record the time and temperature every five minutes
- Open each can quickly, check with the thermometer, and cover the opening with plastic wrap so it doesn't evaporate too much.
- And remember: don't keep the cooler lids open too long, that'll mess up your results.
- Watch the sodas cool.
- Make a graph with time on the bottom and temperature on the side.
- Each line on the graph shows how quickly each method works.
- Mark which one cools the fastest.
Open and print the supply list for yourself!
Want to learn more?