Why does butter take less time to solidify in a refridgerator

You should read about statistical mechanics.

>>7655167
A basic rule of physics is that temperature is related to how fast molecules are moving. In gas state they're highly erratic, solid they're pretty much stationary. Colder temperatures mean the molecules move around less, therefore are more willing to stay in a solid state.

>>7655222
I didnt ask why a refridgerator makes butter solid

Isn't the melting point of butter about 35C? Do you mean softened butter? It's enthalpy of fusion and melting should be the opposite of each other.

Because the temperature at which it softens is closer to room temperature than refrigerator temperature.

>>7655253
That is a fact, but it is certainly not an explanation.

>>7655167
The energy of fusion must be right around room temperature, whereas it's clearly in the solid state in the refrigerator

Take gen chem

>>7655241
Did you accidentally put the apostrophe on its? I dont understand what you mean.

>>7655264
Fag

>>7655266
Still not an explanation.

>>7655266
>energy
Enthalpy*

Can't you guys just say that you don't completely know instead of offering half ass explanations.

>>7655264
>ut it is certainly not an explanation.

It is if you're not an idiot. Obviously it takes less time to make a smaller change.

>>7655271
Enthalpy of fusion is a perfectly valid explanation if you know how it works

>The melting point of butter is between 90 °F and 95 °C (32 °C and 35 °C).

Do you know how specific heat works? Basically all of the energy transferred goes to enthalpy of fusion at room temperature, in the refrigerator it's much colder and overcomes enthalpy, plus temperature changes much faster when the difference is greater.

I told you the melting point of butter had to be about room temperature, I looked it up and I'm right.

>>7655167
*liquefy

>>7655270
This

Delta-Q=mCDelta-T, where Delta-T is absolute value of temperature of surroundings - temperature of freezing/melting. So if the temperature of freezing is closer to room temperature than the fridge temperature, it will take less heat and therefore less time (assuming a simple model) to change state.

>>7655283
Yeah, but why does the temperature change faster.

>>7655297
IT DOESN'T YOU DENSE FAGGOT IT DOESN'T HAVE AS FAR TO GO WHEN FREEZING.

>>7655308
>temperature changes much faster when the difference is greater.

>>7655297
Okay. Take two frozen pieces of chicken. Put one in the oven for five minutes and leave the other on the counter. Then take their temperatures. Which is hotter (aka which had more energy transferred to it)? Obviously the one in the hotter environment. This is because the further your temperature is from the environment, the more rapidly you will absorb or give away energy.

Get it? Now the missing link is enthalpy of fusion, which is essentially this: things don't just smoothly transition from liquid to solid and back. It takes excess energy to begin transitioning them between liquid and solid. So when butter is at room temperature, it's absorbing energy incredibly slowly because it's already at room temperature, so it takes super long for the butter to overcome enthalpy and liquify.

In the refrigerator, the environment readily steals energy, so butter will very quickly overcome that enthalpy and resolidify.

I can't make it any more basic than that.

It may be also connected with heat exchange properties. Hard butter is less conductive than soft, so it takes more time to get evenly heated.

>>7655312
This is true, yes. It's exactly what I was implying and Newton's Law of Heating and Cooling proves it. Thank you, Anon for being so helpful.

>>7655314
>The further your temperature is from the environment, the more rapidly you will absorb or give away energy.

Why?

>>7655320
Ahh. This makes more sense than the other replies.

>>7655297
The temperature changes at a rate determined by the differential equation
[math]
\frac{dT}{dt} = k(T-T_0)
[/math]
Where T0 is the temperature of the surroundings. Larger temperature difference means faster cooling. The state change also takes less time, since temperature is proportional to the intern energy and thus rate of change in temperature corresponds directly with rate of change of enthalpy

>>7655332
Because the physical mechanism that drives heat (exchange of energy) is a temperature gradient. The higher the gradient (difference between temperatures) the higher the rate of exchange.

>>7655264
are you dense? the much colder refridgerator extracts energy from the butter much faster than the only slightly warmer room adds energy to the butter.

>>7655167
Butter is a polymorph with respect to its lipid crystal packing. The solid structure exists in a number of crystalline structures with different molecular arrangements. As such, the rate of nucleation and thus crystal growth, will vary depending on the rate of cooling and properties of the individual fatty acids/triglycerides present in your butter.

When you have liquid butter, you have a mixture of liquid triglycerides. Crystal growth will only occur if stable nuclei form in the liquid into what is known as small-ordered crystallites. The formation of one of these nuclei leads to the creation of a new interface between the solid and liquid phases, which involves an increase in free energy to overcome interface tension. A nucleus needs to have a radius of a specific critical size, otherwise it will dissociate to reduce the free energy of the system. In practice, this means that liquid fats (oils) must be cooled significantly below their melting point before crystal formation occurs.

You can try adding a seed crystal by putting a tiny glob of solid butter or other fat. This should speed up the solidifying process.

>>7655358
Can you prove that equation is true when it comes to butter?
>>7655358
Does that equation account for all of the variables?


>>7655366
You guys keep saying the same thing using different words.

>>7655332
If you insist on being Richard Feynman, ignore the title, he will solve your conundrum in the first few minutes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wMFPe-DwULM

>>7655385
Why don't you have a go? Or Google newton's law of cooling?

Melted butter is a fluid. It can convect. Convection accelerates heat transfer - sometimes in surprising ways.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mpemba_effect

>>7655416
I am here to ask questions, not answer them.

>>7655383
Interesting. I am looking at my butter differently now. Seed crystal sounds pretty cool. i guess spreading out the crystals is the best way to increase the rate of liquefaction at room temperature

>>7655332
>Why?
Nobody knows why. We stick thermometers on shit and that's what we measure. Welcome to science.

>>7655385
>Can you prove that equation is true when it comes to butter?
It's true for all matter.

>Does that equation account for all of the variables?
Temperature and time, yes.

>You guys keep saying the same thing using different words.
That's because it's right.

>>7655442
>>7655383
>>7655320
These all may be true but the big guy on the block is still enthalpy.

>>7655443
Yes, chocolate is another example of a food polymorph. Great care is taken by chocolatiers during the tempering process in order to obtain the most desirable crystal formations/characteristics as these are important in the final product.

>>7655473
Correct, one of the main governing principles is enthalpy

>>7655443
Just to give you intuition for why it's true: the velocity distribution of a given solid or gas is given by a normal distribution (commonly known as Maxwell's distribution). As you get closer and closer in temperature, the number of collisions between molecules of different velocities falls as the mean velocities grow closer. Ultimately, the system obeys this differential equation. Since it is an empirically observed fact, not a mathematical construct, I am not fully aware of the formalized proof.

>>7655167
Its a change in potential energy. Temperature is a measure of kinetic energy. As the butter is put into the fridge, it's given the opportunity to go to a lower potential energy state. When it's taken out of the fridge, it slowly gains kinetic energy from the surrounding temperature.

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>why does this thing behave how it does?
>because A, B and C
>ok, but why though???ß
bloody highschool dropouts

>>7655511
Seriously, like five people gave him the answer of why it happens and he just keeps saying "but why?" even when it's already an extremely intuitive idea. I imagine this is what having small children around is like, except they're cute and naturally unaware enough for it to be tolerable.

>>7655502
kill yourself

>>7655523
>>7655511
I'm not judging you for your inability to explain a concept to my satisfaction. No need to get pissy. There were a couple helpful posters and their posts stand out. Notice how those who imparted the most knowledge were the least snobbish about it.

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>>7655545
>I'm not judging you for your inability to explain a concept to my satisfaction. No need to get pissy
>implying I'd bother to explain something to a guy who dismisses 5 already-given answers with retard rhetoric
pic related, I merely posted after you started your shitshow

>Notice how those who imparted the most knowledge were the least snobbish about it.
the only answers you commented even remotely positive on was the one talking about crystal structure and the other one relating the viscosity of it to the heat exchange in a single sentence

everything else was discarded with stupid shit teenagers say

like
>Still not an explanation.

or when someone explained to you that higher temperature difference=faster heat exchange, and your respone was
>Yeah, but why does the temperature change faster

here's the best one so far, made me laugh actually
>Can you prove that equation is true when it comes to butter?
because the generalized heat equation somehow magically doesn't work on butter

you're a retard who dismisses knowledge he needs to think about as "snobbish"
piss off to Simple English Wikipedia then, for fucks sake

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>>7655264
>durr, you just said 2+2, you didnt explain how to add and what the answer was
Eat a cock

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>Cooking
>Preparing shit to put in pan
>Forget to take butter out to let it soften up

>>7655600
>>7655587
I didn't read your posts but i'm replying to let you know that i dont care what you think. Feel free to type out another response

>>7655625
this is the most butthurt comment i think i've ever read on 4chan

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>>7655625

>>7655631
>>7655628
Keep replying.

>>7655264
It is though

OK OP
EVERYONE IN THIS THREAD ARE FAGGOTS

>ROOM TEMP
>LIQUID
>CONVECTION
>DISTRIBUTE CHILLING FASTER

>FREEZE
>COLD AS FUCK
>BLOCK
>NO CONVECTION
>SLOW AS FUCK

also prob other variables too, but you get the idea

OP, atoms, molecules in the butter are moving. Velocity of these particles is proportional to the temperature. In a sense, temperature is simply the kinetic energy of the particles (movement energy). So, in room temperature, particles have quite a lot of energy and are able to move more freely as opposed to being in the fridge. Once you put butter to the fridge, laws of thermodynamics kick in and butter translates energy to the colder air molecules in the fridge. This way the kinetic energy of butter gets transferred to the colder ones. Since kinetic energy is proportional to speed and in turn to temperature, this is why the butter cools down. Now once it has cooled down, the molecules become more strongly bound together, making butter solid.

>>7655167
>Why does..
It does not.

>>7658081
But why?

>>7655639
>>7655625
>>7655628

holy shit i am a laffin