Does Newton's Law of Cooling have anything to do with apples? Scholars apply Newton's Law of Cooling to solve problems in the 29th installment of a 35-part module. Now that they have knowledge of logarithms, they can determine the decay constant k and use it to model contextual situations.

Concepts

exponential functions, cooling, math modeling, logarithms, decay

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Additional Tags

math

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Instructional Ideas

• Team up with a science teacher and perform an experiment to collect temperature data

Classroom Considerations

• Pupils need access to a calculator with a log or ln key
• Lesson assumes that learners have previously encountered Newton's Law of Cooling (from an Algebra I module)

Pros

• Resource includes a link to an online demonstration
• Some pupils may be interested in the crime scene/forensic science example

Cons

• None

Common Core

HSF-IF.C.9 HSF-BF.A.1.b HSF-LE.A.4 HSF-LE.B.5 MP1 MP2 MP3