Introduction

When you have a hot drink, you know that it gradually cools off. Newton’s law of cooling provides us with a model for cooling. It states that the temperature difference Tdiff between a hot object and its surroundings decreases exponentially with time.

{T_{diff}} = {T_0}{e^{ - kt}}

In the model T0 is the initial temperature difference, and k is a positive constant.

In this activity you will use a Temperature Probe to collect data as the warmed probe cools. You can then fit several mathematical models to the data.

Objectives

  • Record temperature versus time cooling data.
  • Model cooling data with an exponential function.