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?

If the steel were put into the water it would quickly go to the gas phase which has an incredible amount of energy if I remember correctly approximately 4300 KJ/mol. This amount of energy will not really allow the steel to cool all that quickly. The oil on the other hand has a very high bioling point and in fact requires more energy (heat) to raise it's temperature. Therefore the oil would be more resistant to a heat increase resulting in it staying cooler longer which ultimately allows for the steel to cooler quicker. As for the skeptic. Air is not a quick way to cool anything because the molecules in the air move around so much that it does not get a chance to cool things down. Consider putting and ice cube in water at room temperature and at the same time put the ice cube on a table. The ice cube in the water will melt much quicker than the one sitting on the table.

Posted by Ben on 2004-04-02 16:20:42