I am suspicious of this “Lambert’s law”. Suppose the environment is at absolute zero—nothing is moving at all. Then “Lambert’s law” says that the rate of cooling should be infinite: our object should itself instantly drop to absolute zero once placed in an absolute-zero environment. Can that be right?
We’re assuming the environment carries away excess heat instantly. In practice the immediate environment will warm up a bit and the cooling rate will become finite right away.
But in the ideal case, yeah, I think instant cooling makes sense. The environment’s coldness is infinite!
We’re assuming the environment carries away excess heat instantly. In practice the immediate environment will warm up a bit and the cooling rate will become finite right away.
But in the ideal case, yeah, I think instant cooling makes sense. The environment’s coldness is infinite!