- #1
Indychus
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Homework Statement
Say we have a warehouse with a 5 hr time constant. The outside temp is 16C at 2:00AM, and 32C at 2:00PM. The warehouse is at 24C at noon. What will the temp be at 6:00 pm? When will the temp be 27C?
The Attempt at a Solution
First, I set up a sine wave for the fluctuating outside temp. With x=0 corresponding to 2:00AM, my wave looks like
[tex]24-8\cos{\frac{2\pi}{24}[/tex]
Here's where it gets fuzzy. From a similar example in class, we set up an equation of form
[tex]e^\frac{-t}{2}\{\frac{1}{2}\int{e^\frac{t}{2}[M],dt\}+C[/tex]
where [tex]M[/tex] is our wave representing the fluctuation of outside temp. The example from class had a time constant of 2 hours, I assume that's where the t/2, -t/2, and 1/2 in the above equation come from?
If I use that equation, but substitute 5 in place of the 2's, then perform the integration, I should be able to differentiate the result and find relative extrema to determine when my temps are at max/min, correct? I should also be able to drop the C (initial temp) term since it will eventually disappear due to exponential decay anyways, right?