Comment Physics Sorely Lacking (Score 1) 190
Where to start? As is unfortunately typical, Tom's crew demonstrates a profound lack of clue. I'll limit myself to one point.
None of the tests was allowed to reach anything resembling steady-state. This is crucial, because the characteristic time to reach steady-state is strongly influenced by the heat capacitance of the system, which is to say, by the volume of water and metal being heated, weighted by the respective heat capacities and conductances between each. The steady-state temperature, which after all is what you care about, is determined by the efficiency of the final-stage of heat-exchange: namely, how quickly heat is pulled out of the water and into the air, as for example assisted by the fan.
A high-school physics student can write down and solve the appropriate differential equations well enough. And even a high-school dropout knows that the steady-state temperature is what matters most. We hope the typical customer is smarter.
None of the tests was allowed to reach anything resembling steady-state. This is crucial, because the characteristic time to reach steady-state is strongly influenced by the heat capacitance of the system, which is to say, by the volume of water and metal being heated, weighted by the respective heat capacities and conductances between each. The steady-state temperature, which after all is what you care about, is determined by the efficiency of the final-stage of heat-exchange: namely, how quickly heat is pulled out of the water and into the air, as for example assisted by the fan.
A high-school physics student can write down and solve the appropriate differential equations well enough. And even a high-school dropout knows that the steady-state temperature is what matters most. We hope the typical customer is smarter.
