Not really a brainteaser, but oh well

[The Thing]

There are two glasses of water, one is 10 degrees above room temperature, the other 10 degrees below. The water in each glass is identical, glasses are identical, conditions for both glasses of water are identical as well. They are left in a room.

Which glass of water will reach room temperature first? Why?

[ecoli]

The hotter one should cool down faster, because entropy is favored in the universe. does that make sense?

 

Either that, or it's a trick question, and it happens at the same rate.

[Connor]

depends, what's the temperature in the room?

[Tannin]

Fourier's law for conductive heat tranfer states:

q=-k grad T

where q is the heat flux, k is thermal conductivity and grad T is the temperature difference (gradient).

So, in the framework of the approximation provided by this law, the heat flux is equal for both glasses and thus they will reach the room temperature simultaneously.

[Connor]

technically we can't know because of random chance

[ski_power]

I see something funny,

 

are both left in the same room?

[quick silver]

QUOTE=ecoli]The hotter one should cool down faster, because entropy is favored in the universe. does that make sense?

 

Either that, or it's a trick question, and it happens at the same rate.

 

heat is transfered from hot to cold. the glass of water above room temp. might cool to room temp first. colder water heats up slower.............?

am i off compleatly or is it a trick question?

[m4rc]

The difference between the two situations will be very small. Heat lost/gained by convection will be the same. The only thing that I can see that would change this is the latent heat gained or loss by evaporation or condensation. If the air is dry, then evaporation off both glasses will cause a reduction in temperature resulting in the hot glass reaching equilibrium first. If the air is very humid, then condensation will occur on the glasses, increasing their temperature, so the cold glass will reach equilibrium first.