4 ms·
From my reading, the point is that the glass of water doesn't really "have a temperature" any more, since the cooling transition means it's no longer in thermal
by xelxebar 4y ago
From my reading, the point is that the glass of water doesn't really "have a temperature" any more, since the cooling transition means it's no longer in thermal equilibrium.
That is, you could perhaps model the bulk of water as having a temperature field, and clearly every point in that field passes through the starting temperature of the initially-cool system, but the gradient landscape is vastly different.
- AndrewThrowaway 4y agoBut we are still dealing with energy? Every point should still transfer energy which should take time?
- andbberger 4y agono, temperature is simply average kinetic energy and is always defined, even for systems far from equilibrium
- eternauta3k 4y agoThe point is that the state of the system consists of more than its average temperature. It's not just "catching up" to the state of the initially-cold water, it's going through other configurations.
- ephbit 4y agoWould be interesting to know what the outcome of fluid dynamics and physics simulations of this setup is. Heat transfer, convection, conduction, evaporation and so on should be available in useful implementations in state of the art simulation software.