Try it on paper first. A hint, the key idea and the worked solution are here when you need them.
A forensic scientist arrives at a flat where a person has been found dead. The room is kept at a steady by a thermostat. At the body temperature is , and at it is . The scientist assumes that the body cooled by Newton's law from its normal temperature of at the moment of death, with the same constant throughout. She first finds from the two readings. She then uses to work back to the time of death and to predict what the thermometer will show later. Find in per hour, the time in hours from the death to the reading at , and the body temperature at in degrees Celsius. State the time of death to the nearest minute.
Newton's law is , so . For a tank, , and the volume is .
Have you tried it?
Work it out on paper first. It is fine to get stuck or make a mistake: that is how we learn. When you are ready, go through the solution one step at a time, and check each step against your own.
Given. . The gap is at and at . At death the gap is .
Plan. Find from the two gaps. Then find the time for the gap to fall from to . Then multiply the gap at by .
Step 1. The constant. , so .
Step 2. The time since death. gives . That is , so death was at .
Step 3. The temperature at . The gap at is . Two more hours multiply it by , giving . So .
Answer: , before , so death at about , and at .
Watch out. The result depends on the assumption that the body started at and that was constant. Real estimates add a margin of error.
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