Newton’s law of cooling states that the rate of cooling of an object is proportional to the temperature difference between the object and its surroundings. So the rate of cooling for a bottle of lemonade at a room temperature of 75°F which is placed into a refrigerator with temperature of 38°F can be modeled by dT dt equals k times the quantity T minus 38 where T(t) is the temperature of the lemonade after t minutes and T(0) = 75. After 30 minutes the lemonade has cooled to 60°F, so T(30) = 60.

Question

A) To the nearest degree, what is the temperature of the lemonade after an additional 30 minutes?

B) To the nearest minute, how long does it take for the lemonade to cool to 55°F?

Answer 1

Using your numbers, you can make the function
T(t) = 75+(38-75)e^(-kt) = 75 - 37e^(-kt)
Now just plug in the point (30,60) to find k.

Then you can find t such that T(t) = 55