Answer to Question #19817 in Molecular Physics | Thermodynamics for Alexis Wicen

Question

Hi,

I often buy 1.5 liter bottles of soda and have always faced the problem of cooling it down fast. Assuming you only have a normal freezer and you would like to cool the soda as fast as possible. You have no ice cubes, so you don't want to drink any before everything is cool.

How much faster or slower would it go to pour half of the soda into an empty 1.5 liter bottle and screw the caps on and lay them in the freezer.

The idea is that the air inside the canister will cool down faster than the liquid and then help cool the liquid faster than if the liquid was just exposed to the plastic all the time (one full bottle lying down). (Perhaps this is not the case, if so, how much slower would it take?)

For assumptions we can use:
The freezer is empty (i.e. the outside of the bottle is cool air at minus 20 degrees celsius).
If you'd like, the bottles can be replaced with cylindrical plastic 1.5 liter canisters.
The liquid starts at room temperature of 20 degrees celsius.
It is drinkable at 3 degrees celsius