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?

I assume that it would be the ice water, because the (convection/conduction) steam will remove the heat extremely affectively, because the heated water will move away, leaving the colder water to take its place.

Posted by Chaz on 2003-05-03 15:09:44