A New Interpretation of the Newton´s Cooling Law: Two Features of Thermons: Their Elastic Volume and Their Angular Momentum

Abstract

The Newton´s cooling law still attracts the attention of scholars in order to describe hidden features of heat particles (thermons) and the mechanism of the radiating heat into the surroundings with a lower temperature. The characteristic cooling constant of this process 1/τπ [min-1] was defined as the experimental parameter describing the contributions of the thermon elastic volume and thermon angular momentum. This experimental parameter τπwas found as the time needed to achieve the temperature Tπ = Tenv +(T0-Tenv)/π during the cooling of the studied object with the starting temperature T0 and the surrounding with temperature Tenv. The studied system was water in spherical flasks with the volumes 2000, 1000, 500, 250, and 100 mL and the starting temperatures 90° C, 80°C, and 70° C. The temperature of the surrounding was 24° C (laboratory temperature) and (4° ± 2°) C (outdoor temperature on March 5 2023 near Prague). There was one critical experimental parameter: where to place the thermometer in the spherical flask: 1. inside to the bottom wall, 2. in the center of spherical flask, 3. at the upper level of the water volume, 4. outside to the bottom wall. For all experimental runs we have found that the temperature Tπ measured at the inside bottom wall of the spherical flasks might be interpreted as the “true” Newtonian temperature while the characteristic cooling constant τπ is very close to the value of the slope in the semi-log graph of those cooling systems. This model was used to interpret the historical experimental data of Newton (1701) and the modern experimental data of Grigull (1984). This model opens a new view on the Carnot engine where the elastic volume of thermons can achieve the efficiency η1 = (THOT – Tπ)/(THOT – TCOLD) = 1-1/π ≈ 0.682. Moreover, the “waste heat” after the Carnot engine can be used in the Seebeck generator to convert the angular momentum of thermons into the electricity (thermoelectric generator) with the efficiency η2 = (Tπ –TCOLD)/(THOT – TCOLD) = 1/π ≈ 0.318. The combined Carnot (1824) – Seebeck (1825) engine can explore all available heat of the of thermons for the temperature difference THOT – TCOLD.