One of the concerns of environmental science today is outside factors being affected by larger surroundings in its environment. For example, if an iceberg was to be dropped into an ocean, it is known that the ocean's temperature would not be affected by the iceberg temperature, but the iceberg's temperature, however, would be affected by the ocean, according to Newton's Law of Cooling. .
In this experiment two thermal reservoirs were made of 2 liters of zero degree Celsius water and 100 degree Celsius water placed into a tin tray. Different quantities of water: 100 milliliters, 200 milliliters, and 300 milliliters, were detained into a zip lock bag, and then placed into both then placed into each thermal reservoir one at a time. The changes in temperature over a sixty minute period of the different quantities of water were measured using a thermometer. Each dataset was then recorded and compared. .
After collecting the data, Newton's Law of Cooling equation was used to determine the theoretical temperatures for each dataset. T=TR - ce-kt; with T being the experimental temperature, TR being the thermal reservoir temperature, c being the constant which must be determined, and -kt being the k value, or constant time which also must be determined after solving the equation using the data collected. After determining the k value (-kt), it is then plugged into the following equation: TR + T -K = Theoretical temperature; with TR being the thermal reservoir temperature, T being the experimental temperature and -K being the determined K value. The following K values were determined for each dataset in contact with the zero degree Celsius thermal reservoir: 100 milliliters - .0427, 200 milliliters - .0315, and 300 milliliters - .0231. The following K values were determined for each dataset in contact with the 100 degree Celsius thermal reservoir: 100 milliliters - .0505, 200 milliliters - .0526, and 300 milliliters - .
