If you left the refrigerator door open, what would happen to the room temperature and why?
Asked by: Sophie
Answer
The room would get warmer! Think of a refrigerator as a device that transfers heat from
inside a box to its surroundings. The room around a refrigerator is warmed as it receives
the heat removed from inside the box.
If you leave the door open, heat is merely recycled from the room into the refrigerator,
then back into the room. A net room temperature increase would result from the heat of the
motor that would be constantly running to move energy around in a circle. It would be like
hooking up a water pump to remove water from your basement and routing the discharge tube
back to the basement.
Answered by: Paul Walorski, B.A. Physics, Part-time Physics Instructor
'In a way science is a key to the gates of heaven, and the same key opens the gates of hell, and we do not have any instructions as to which is which gate.
Shall we throw away the key and never have a way to enter the gates of heaven? Or shall we struggle with the problem of which is the best way to use the key?'