A blacksmith wishes to cool his hot piece of steel as rapidly as possible. He has a bucket of ice-water and a bucket of oil (at room temperature). Which bucket should he dump his steel into?

The oil. If you dump the steel in the water it woulkd actually heat up the water to water vapour before it makes contact with the water thus being cooled after a slight delay. Where as oil has a higher boiling temperature (i think) and wil make contact with the steel before the water.

Posted by Alan on 2003-04-01 04:04:02