While the equation is impressive, a simple thought experiment should reveal the folly of the correspondent’s supposition: Would you rather be immersed in 50-degree (Fahrenheit) liquid water for 10 seconds, or in -321-degree liquid nitrogen for 10 seconds?
If the writer’s theory was correct, the person’s skin temperature should only have cooled slightly in either case, right?
Powers &8^]
Okay, okay, Leidenfrost effect and all that. But work with me here.
Powers &8^]
Yep, I’ve got to say this is one of the most self-evident questions ever asked of Cecil. I can’t help wondering what the guy must have read (and misunderstood) that ever put that idea in his head.
<off-topic> It reminds me of how entropy was described in a book I read as a child, and how I became confused by the concept as a result: “Hot things cool down, cold things do not heat up”. Which is incorrect for most everyday interpretations of “heat up” and “cool down”.
When what it probably meant was “Matter tends towards temperature equilibrium with its surroundings”.
But even that sentence is just one aspect of entropy.
</off-topic>
Okay, minor annoyance with the column. Cecil doesn’t explain what “delta” is.
If T is the difference, then delta would be the difference between that number and what? No, delta T is the difference between the fridge temperature and the beer temperature. He should either drop “delta” from the equation, or use “delta T” in the explanation.
Couldn’t Cecil also have invoked Newton’s Law of Cooling (“The rate of heat loss of a body is proportional to the difference in temperatures between the body and its surroundings”)?
The obvious answer is that you should never put sealed containers of (mainly) water in the freezer if it’s at all possible you might forget about them. Thus, it is not possible for cans of beer to cool faster in the freezer because such a situation will never occur. Or something like that.
I’m fairly sure I’ve seen science experiments showing examples of ice freezing faster at higher temperatures (perhaps something to do with the difference in air pressure changing the rate of cooling); I was expecting Cecil’s column to at least mention this…
This column was about cool versus cold ambient temperature. Probably you’re thinking of the Mpemba effect, in which the substance to be frozen can in some cases freeze faster if the substance starts out warm than if it starts out cold. This is true even if the ambient temperature is the same. Cecil has addressed this effect in a different column: Which freezes faster, hot water or cold water? - The Straight Dope.
Simple answer the greater source of cool is in the Freezer section and proximity to the source is relative to rate of cooling down. The Refrigerator uses a ducting in the back that air flow is controlled and circulated into the Refrigerator section, in short the coolness transferred is blown into the Refrigerator section Where as the Evaporator in the Freezer section is the source.
Aw, rats. I hate being the stickler; I’m not even a physics guy. :smack:
There is only heat being transferred from the beer. You can’t transfer coolness, except in the figurative sense (like getting your picture taken with bibliophage and Rico.) 
The question is about the quicker of two ways of removing heat from cans of beer. We’re not even removing all the heat from the beer; the refrigerator doesn’t work that well, and we don’t want it to. We’d like to leave enough heat to excite a thermometer to about 35-37 degrees F. If you remove more heat than that, the beer becomes unstable. The water becomes solid, separating from the alcohol.
At that point the beer is much less wonderful. Water, unlike most substances, takes up more room as a solid, so you risk fracturing the cans, too.
Set a timer for about 20 minutes when you put the beer in the freezer. That’s about right for most fridges.
But is it right for most freezers? 
<ducking and running>
Or about 35 minutes for bottles. And set the oven timer!
ETA: This was one of my favorite columns from the first book. I love the irony of the “cute but mentally retarded girlfriend” comment. The picture helps, too.
I just checked the book, and “delta T” is used in both places (actually, the Greek letter delta).
So you’re saying this is a web column editing error? Oh Little Ed, cleanup on Aisle 9!
The heat is transferred by conduction, and Cec is ignoring the marginal radiaton effects. he also ignores the marginal effects like heating the surroundings.
I read a column somewhere once that discussed various methods of cooling cans of beverage, in this case Coke. The absolute best way to quickly chill a can of whatever is with immersion in salt icewater. The salt means the outside temperature can be below zero (32F for you weird people) for the maximal delta-T. In fact - trivia alert - Zero Fareheit is the coldest you can get mixing ice and salt, which is why Farenheit picked it. Even plain ice-water will set and keep the delta-T at a good point; which is why icewater immersion is the usual way to keep drinks cold outside of a fridge, something you tend to see at various outdoor functions.
-Water has a high heat latency, which means it takes a lot of heat to raise its temperature, moreso that air.
-water will move with convection, so the warmed fluid will move out of the way to let colder fluid replace it. Stick a drink in a solid block of ice, and the heat will eventually melt away an air gap.
Of course, liquid nitrogen will work even faster, but if you’re not careful, it may freeze the drink before you stop it in time.
Well, more or less. The story, as given in Wikipedia, is a good deal more complex, involving several nudges up and down over the years to give round numbers.
…and I’m guessing the GF is (was?) hot as hell.
Typical.
The other end of the joke is that while playing with all this icewater, he got sick; so he measured 100F as body temperature instead of 98.6F. yeah, sometimes these things are too good to be true.
But basically, he was looking for a thermometer any home amateur scientist could whip up in their garage, in the days before standards (or garages). Anytime an amateur scientist got bored of handling liquid mercury for the barometer, they could take temperature readings instead. Obviously, it caught on.
The beer cooling experiments were done by former Chicago Bear William Perry and a fellow lineman whose name escapes me. After the two made their many duplications of the experiment (Bears Repeating), they decided the Fridge numbers could be applied to “most Fridges.”
;):dubious:;):dubious:
I’m assuming your “too good to be true” is an attempt to indicate you realize this story is not true.
Fahrenheit originally set 96° as the body tempterature, as this gave him a scale based on multiples of 32 (32° was the freezing point of water; 0° the temperature of a brine ice solution). The reason for 32? It is markable on a column of glass enclosing mercury by simply dividing in half several times; the same for the distance between 32 and 96.
Later work resulted in dilating the scale slightly, so that the human body temperature (37° C in average) ended up being at 98.6°F.