Understanding Heat Transfer in Coolers for Picnic

What is the difference in heat transfer between cooler A and cooler B?

Why did most of the ice in cooler A remain while nearly all of the ice in cooler B melted?

Answer:

The rate of heat transfer in cooler A is lower than the rate of heat transfer in cooler B, resulting in more ice remaining in cooler A compared to cooler B.

A person packed two identical coolers for a picnic, each containing twenty-four 12-ounce soft drinks and 5 pounds of ice. The drinks placed in cooler A were refrigerated for several hours before being packed, while the drinks in cooler B were at room temperature.

Since the drinks in cooler A were refrigerated for a few hours, they were at a lower temperature compared to the drinks in cooler B. When there is a temperature gradient in a system, heat energy will flow from the body at high temperature to the body at low temperature until thermal equilibrium is reached.

The rate of heat transfer in cooler A is lower than in cooler B, which means that more heat energy is being transferred in cooler B than in cooler A. As a result, most of the ice in cooler A remained while nearly all of the ice in cooler B melted.