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Cake day: June 23rd, 2023

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  • The main reason spinning a can works is because it induces convection inside and outside of the can, which contributes to more collisions and better distributions of collisions. If the warmest soda is in the middle of the can, the cold molecules near the can walls will reach a temperature similar to the ice bath and thud the rate at which heat is transferred becomes stunted.

    For lettuce, you’d have better luck finding a way to pass cold water between the leaves, much like having fins on a heatsink (surface area).


  • Sorry, saturation is not the right word to describe it. I was thinking of the ice/water analogy and I mistakenly applied it to my heatsink analogy.

    The correct limit to the heatsink analogy would a function of the thermal dissipation of the heatsink (material, surface area, thermal resistance) and the qualities of the surrounding fluid (ambient temp, flow, etc). Honestly, my comparison between the ice/water example and heatsinks is not good. It is only appropriate in reference to the “molecular collisions” concept I mentioned before.


  • By spinning the can in ice water, it increases the rate of transfer of heat energy from the drink in the can, to the can itself, to the ice water. It’s like how stirring the ice in a cup of not-cold water will melt the ice / cool the water faster.

    At a molecular level, you would see an increase in the number of collisions between ice molecules and liquid molecules. The collisions must occur for heat transfer to happen, so more collisions = more cooling. It is also the same reason why a heatsink can draw more heat from a processor when a fan blows air over it (until the air is saturated with heat).