Please answer a simple science question

Thats a good question Sarah. Have you asked a red-head?

more later when I have considered

I would guess that the 75 degree one will reach the ambiant temperature first.

Well I've considered now. My conclusion is that this a deceptively simple question which masks a paradoxical aspect of thermodynamics. Ask the fish.

Good guess, ci

and you have a 50% chance of being right.

I always knew I had a 50% chance to being right, but with my luck...

If the question had been about temperature in Celsius ... I've really no idea, how this can work in Fahrenheit.

If it works.

Actually Walter, the answer is in degrees K

[Kelvin is a temperature scale designed so that zero degrees K is defined as absolute zero (at absolute zero, a hypothetical temperature, all molecular movement stops - all actual temperatures are above absolute zero) and the size of one unit is the same as the size of one degree Celsius. Water freezes at 273.16K; water boils at 373.16K. [ K = C + 273.16°, F = (9/5)C + 32°].

This temperature scale was designed by Lord Kelvin (William Thompson, 1824-1907). Kelvin was a British inventor and scientist. In addition to his work on temperature, Kelvin invented over 50 devices (including the mirror galvanometer, which detects and measures weak electric fields), discovered the second law of thermodynamics (the amount of usable energy in the universe is decreasing), and wrote hundreds of scientific papers]

Unfortunately Lord Kelvin is not around on a2k to help Sarah with her problem, being dead.

Maybe "being dead" is a clue to the answer.

therefore the parallaxe error...



Otherwise named enthropy...

It takes the same amount of time

stuh, And the proof is?

I'd infer from what stuh says that, all else being the same, a body loses heat at the same rate that it gains it.

Does the volume of water make any difference? (Two bowls of water vs two teaspoons of water.)

It takes the same amount of time.

Lord Kelvin was Scottish.

Good evening.

Then why does it take longer to boil two cups of water vs two teaspoons of water on the stove at the same temp?

Didn't smorgs say the two containers of water were the same volume?

Otherwise, all bets are off.

McTag, I threw a curve with my last question which may not be relavant. "Does the volume of water make any difference? (Two bowls of water vs two teaspoons of water.)"

If I remember my college physics correctly, the energy (heat) transmitted depends on the temperature gradient and the amount of insulation between the two areas.

The question indicates that these two factors are equal for both containers. Therefore, the rate at which heat is lost/gained will be equal.

Since the cooler water will be slightly more dense, it will therefore require slightly more energy to be transfered, which will take slightly longer.

(But I expect it would be within measurement error, so the answer is that the will take the same amount of time.)

DrewDad, The best answer yet, IMHO.