A person packs two identical coolers for a picnic, placing twenty-four 12-ounce soft drinks and 5 pounds of ice in each. However
, the drinks put into cooler A were refrigerated for several hours before they were packed in the cooler, while the drinks put into cooler B were at room temperature. When the picnickers open the two coolers three hours later, most of the ice in cooler A is still present, while nearly all of the ice in cooler B has melted. Explain the differencea.This difference can be explained by the different composition of the drinks.b.When both drinks are placed into the ice, they release heat which then melts the ice in both coolers. But in cooler A the drinks are pre-chilled so they can absorb heat back and cool water back to ice.c.When warm drinks are placed into the ice, they release heat which then molts the lo The pre-chilled drinks are already cold so they do not release much heat and do not melt the ice.d.The ice would melt in both coolers anyway because three hours is enough time to melt 5 pounds of ice. So in cooler B both drinks and water will be at room temperature.e.But in cooler A the temperature of pre-cooled drinks is lower than the room temperature, they will absorb heat from water and freeze it.
Quantity of heat released or absorbed is directly proportional to change temperature ΔT in the formula for calculating quantity of heat absorbed or release mcΔT where m is the mass of the substance, c is specific heat capacity in J/(kgk) and ΔT is change in temperature in kelvin or Celsius. The pre-chilled drinks loses less heat energy since the temperature difference is low and it is kept in a cooler to reduce energy loss or absorbed compare to the other drinks kept at room temperature in the cooler which is averagely 23oC, the ice will absorb more heat energy from the drinks due to the larger difference in temperature of about 23oC and consequently melt
