What is Newton's law of cooling used for?
Answers
Named after the famous English Physicist, Sir Isaac Newton, Newton’s Law of Cooling states that the rate of heat lost by a body is directly proportional to the temperature difference between the body and its surrounding areas. Given that such difference in temperature is small and the nature of the surface radiating heat remains constant. To put it in simpler terms, we may say that the hotter an object is, the quicker it cools down.
By temperature difference, we mean that any phenomenon which leads to the flow of energy into a system or flow of energy from any system into the surrounding area. In the former case, the object heats up, whereas in the latter, the object cools down. Newton’s Law of Cooling leads to the often cited equation of exponential decline over time.
This can be applied to several phenomena of science and engineering which includes discharge of a capacitor and the decay in radioactivity. The law is helpful in the study of heating water as it can help us calculate what speed the heater in the pipes cools off. To understand the application of this law in a practical sense would be that if you are going on a vacation and turn off the breaker, it will be able to tell you how fast the water heater will cool down.