Cooler Experiment: Optimistic Explanation of Ice Melting Process

What happened with the two coolers during the camping trip?

Why did most of the ice in cooler A remain ice, while almost all of the ice in cooler B melted after 4 hours?

Answer:

Explanation: The drinks that were put into cooler A have lower temperatures than the drinks that were put into cooler B. As heat flows from high temperature to low temperature until it reaches equilibrium, more heat flows from the drinks to ice in cooler B than the heat flows from the drinks to ice in cooler A. Thus, most of the ice in cooler B is melted as heat is transferred to the ice that results in its phase change.

The soft drinks in cooler B had higher thermal energy than the soft drinks in cooler A. Therefore, greater thermal energy flowed from the drinks in cooler B to ice, causing it to melt faster. When the soft drinks are placed in ice, thermal energy flows from the object having a higher temperature to the object at a lower temperature until thermal equilibrium is achieved between the two bodies. Note that the temperature difference between the soft drinks in cooler B and ice is much higher compared to the temperature difference between the soft drinks in cooler A and ice.

The reason behind this is that the soft drinks in cooler A were kept in a refrigerator for 8 hours while the soft drinks in cooler B were kept at room temperature for 8 hours. When both groups of soft drinks were added to different coolers with the same 1.5 kg of ice, thermal equilibrium was attained in both cases. The soft drinks in cooler B transferred more energy to the ice in four hours causing it to melt faster compared to the amount of energy transferred to it by the soft drinks in cooler A. The energy between the soft drinks in cooler A and ice were minimal hence the soft drinks in cooler A still remained ice after 4 hours.