Expert: Palash Apte - 3/27/2007

Question
taking newton's law of cooling into consideration, (basically objects cool/heat faster when the temperature difference between the object and it surroundings is greater) your probably familiar with it, I assume that frozen/cooled chocolate would melt faster. Am I correct in this assumption?

Answer
Jenna,

You are correct in your definition of newtons law which states that the rate of change of temp. is proportional to the temp. diff.
However, a frozen chocolate will NOT melt faster than a chocolate at a higher temp. because even though the frozen chocolates temp will initially be faster than that for the chocolate at higher temp., the chocolate at higher temp. has a head start just because its initially at a higher temp.
You can create a simple excel spreadsheet and see this effect clearly.

Palash