Question

A cup of hot coffee initially at 95 degrees C cools to 80 degrees C in 5 min while sitting in a room of temperature 21 degrees C. Using Newton's law of cooling, determine when the temperature of the coffee will be a nice 50 degrees C.

Answer 1

Answer:

When the temperature of the coffee is 50 °C, the time will be 20.68 mins

Explanation:

Given;

The initial temperature of the coffee T₀ = 95 °C

The temperature of the room = 21°C

Let T be the temperature at time of cooling t in mins

According to Newton's law of cooling;

$\frac{dT}{dt} \alpha (T-21)\\\\\frac{dT}{dt} = k (T-21)\\\\\frac{dT}{T-21} = kdt\\\\\int\limits {\frac{dT}{T-21}} = \int\limits kdt\\\\Log(T-21) =kt + Logc \\\\Log (\frac{T-21}{c} ) = kt\\\\T -21 = ce^{kt}\\\\At \ t = 0, T = 95\\\\95-21 = ce^0\\\\74 = c\\\\New, equation: T -21 = 74e^{kt}\\\\Again; when \ t= 5\ min, T = 80\\\\80 -21 = 74e^{5k}\\\\59 = 74e^{5k}\\\\e^{5k} = \frac{59}{74}\\\\ 5k = ln(\frac{59}{74})\\\\5k = -0.2265\\\\k = -0.0453$

When the temperature is 50 °C, the time t in min is calculated as;

$T -21 = 74e^{-0.0453t}\\\\50 -21 = 74e^{-0.0453t}\\\\29 = 74e^{-0.0453t}\\\\\frac{29}{74} = e^{-0.0453t}\\\\0.39189 = e^{-0.0453t}\\\\ln(0.39189 ) = {-0.0453t}\\\\-0.93677 = {-0.0453t}\\\\t = \frac{-0.93677}{-0.0453}\\\\ t = 20.68 \ mins$

Therefore, when the temperature of the coffee is 50 °C, the time will be 20.68 mins