Problem Based Learning (PBL) for

MS7302
The Problem
As part of his vacation job at Yummy Café, Andrew was tasked to cook stew just before
closing time so that there would be ready made stew for customers the next morning. In
order to preserve the stew overnight, the stew needs to be refrigerated. Andrew was
instructed by his manager not to put the stew immediately into the fridge (after it has
been removed from the stove) because this huge amount of stew will require a lot of
energy to cool and may put unnecessary strain on the fridge. The stew has to be cooled
down to room temperature before it can be placed in the fridge.
On his first day of work, Andrew put the pot of stew into a bucket of ice and noted that
the temperature of the stew dropped to 70 degrees Celsius after 10minutes. Based on this
information, your task is to help Andrew find the minimum time he needs to allow the
stew to sit in the ice before he can place it in the fridge. With your help, Andrew can plan
what time he needs to begin to cook the stew so it gets done just before he leaves and he
can leave on time.

Q1.

What do we know about this What don’t we know about this What do we need to find out?
problem? problem?
- The stew needs to be - The volume/amount of stew - Newton’s law of
cooled to room that is cooked cooling
temperature before it - The room temperature in the - How to temperature
can be placed into the kitchen of Yummy Café behaves
fridge - The initial temperature of the
- Temperature drops 70 stew
degrees after 20minutes - Minimum time he needs to
- The stew allow to sit in allow the stew to sit in the
the ice which is assume ice before he can place it in
to be 0 degrees the fridge
- The stew has to be
cooled down to room
temperature which is
assume to be 25
degrees
Q2. A pot of stew at 90ºC is allowed to cool to room temperature. During the cooling
process, would you expect the time taken for the temperature of the stew to drop from
80ºC to 70ºC to be more, the same or less than the time taken for the temperature to drop
from 50ºC to 40º?

Ans: The time taken for the temperature of the stew to drop from 80ºC to 70ºC would be
less than the time taken for the temperature to drop from 50ºC to 40. The drop in
temperature against time is exponential due to Newton’s law of cooling. The temperature
drop faster in the beginning but slows down as the difference between the ambient
temperature becomes lesser.

Q3. Using your answer to Q2, what would you expect the graph of temperature versus
time for pot of stew cooling at the room temperature to look like? Sketch this graph.

Q4. It is known that when an object is being cooled, the rate of change of the object’s
temperature is proportional to the temperature difference between the object and its
surroundings. Using T (t) to denote the temperature of the stew at time t and Ts to denote
the temperature of the surroundings, form an equation to represent this relationship.

Ans:

dT/dt is proportional to (T(t) - Ts )

therefore,
dT/dt = -k (T(t) - Ts )
Q5. Check that your equation makes sense, i.e. can it also describe the case of a cold
object heating up in a warmer environment? Explain what the constant in your equation
represents. (Hint: If you were to compare the rate of cooling of the stew inside a sealed
Styrofoam container and inside a metal pot, which one might correspond to a larger value
of the constant?)

Ans:

The equation above definitely can describe the case of a cold object heating up in a
warmer environment. However in this case the object is heating up rather then cooling
down therefore the appropriate equation will be dT/dt= k(T(t) - Ts ). The constant k in the
equation represents proportional.

Q6. Show that the following equation is true:

( dy/dt = -ky)

Where y= T(t) - Ts ( Hint: you will need to use the equation you obtained in Q4 )

dy/dt = d/dt ( T(t) - Ts ) Surrounding temperature is constant so

= dT(s)/dt - dTs/dt dTs/dt is 0
= dT/dt

From equation obtained in Q4

dT/dt =-k (T(t) - Ts )
subbed y in,
dT/dt= -ky

Q7. Consider the equation in Q6 to determine y. (Hint: the above equation tells us that y
is a function, whose form does not change upon differentiating. From above, the
differentiation of y, dy/dt , is still equal to y ( multiple by a constant = -k). Which
function has this property?

Ans: Exponential function has this property because it’s form does not change upon
differentiating.
Q8. Using your answer to Q7, find an expression for T(t) in terms of t by considering the
following:

• At t=0, the temperature of the stew T(0) is __?__

• The temperature of the stew is 70ºC after it has been let to sit for 10minutes

Let y0= T(0) - Ts = To - Ts ( initial temperature difference at time t=0)

To = original temperature of stew

From Q6 y= T(t) – Ts ( temperature difference between stew and ice)

Therefore, from Newton’s law of cooling the greater the temperature difference the fast
the temperature change against time exponentially

we derive this equation:

y(t) = y0 e-kt

T(t) – Ts = ( To – Ts ) e-kt

T(t) = Ts + ( To – Ts) e-kt

• At t=0, the temperature of the stew T(0) is T(0) = Ts + ( To – Ts )

• The temperature of the stew is 70ºC after it has been let to sit for 10minutes
70 = Ts + (To – Ts ) e-10k
Q9. Propose a solution for Andrew. Discuss what will happen if Andrew stirs the soup
whilst waiting for it to cool.

Solution:
(Assume that original temperature of stew is 100ºC and temperature of ice is 0ºC)

70 = 0 + (100-0) e-10k
70 = 100e-10k
0.7 = e-10k
-0.356674943 = -10k
k = 0.035667494

T(t) = 0 + (100-0) e-0.035667t

So if the stew need to cool to surrounding temperature, we assume T(s) = 25ºC

25 = 0 + (100-0) e-0.035667t
0.25 = e-0.035667t
-1.386294361 = -0.035667t
t = 38.867min

If Andrew stir the soup it will increase the speed of cooling thus reduce the minimum
time required for the stew to cool to 25ºC.

Q10. Find out further application of equations of the form dy/dt = -ky
Ans:
Further application are charging up a empty battery, the higher the potential difference
the faster the battery will be charge up over time.