Thursday, February 19, 2015

ELI5: Why does a bottle's orientation matter when placing it in a refrigerator to cool? explainlikeimfive


A friend of mine hit me with a bit of weird thermodynamics: Cylinders cool more quickly in the refrigerator when placed on their side than upright.


The explanation offered here says it has to do with height: http://ift.tt/1AM8Vu3


Okay, great, but WHY? It seems silly to me that cooling (or heating possibly?) is driven by gravity and height, and not by how much surface area is exposed to the volume of other temperature.







Submitted February 19, 2015 at 11:37PM by Steneub http://ift.tt/1AM8U9z explainlikeimfive

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