Naked Science Forum

General Science => General Science => Topic started by: Steve Smith on 23/08/2008 15:53:16

Title: Why does a coin beneath frozen beer make it defrost quickly?
Post by: Steve Smith on 23/08/2008 15:53:16

Steve Smith  asked the Naked Scientists:
Hi chris

if you take a bottle of part frozen beer and put a coin under it it will defrost quickly; at least this is the way bar girls do it in thailand

can you explain

steve

What do you think?

Title: Why does a coin beneath frozen beer make it defrost quickly?
Post by: RD on 23/08/2008 16:34:43

Metal conducts heat much better than air.
Replacing the insulating air under the concave bottle base with conductive metal (coins) would increase the rate heat
is transferred from the bar surface to the beer and speed up defrosting.

There's a relevant speeded-up video demonstration on this TNS page (http://www.thenakedscientists.com/HTML/content/kitchenscience/exp/fastest-melting-ice/).


[PS  be aware that some of the bar girls in Thailand may not actually be girls.  [:)] ]