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 given explaination is incorrect because the phenomena < aka film boiling > occurs only at much higher temperature than the conventional temp used in forgeing steel. only when the a substance is sufficiently hot and dipped in water will the water vapour film be sustainable for providing the said thermal insulation, surely not for steel forging temperature.

Posted by srikumar on 2003-08-29 13:56:23