Chapter 17, Problem 7RQ

In a factory, various metal rods are forged and then plunged into a liquid to quickly cool the metal. The types of metals produced, as well as their specific heat capacity, are listed in Table A.

Table A Specific heat information for various metals

The metal rods may vary in mass and production (initial) temperature. The ideal process lowers the temperature of the material to 50 degrees Celsius [°C].

The liquid used to cool the metal is glycerol. The properties of glycerol are listed below. Initially, the glycerol is at room temperature, assumed to be 75 degrees Fahrenheit [°F].

Write a program containing the following elements.

• Enter the material names and specific heat information from Table A into a cell array.
• Ask the user to select a material from a menu.
• Ask the user to enter a 1 × 2 vector of the mass in grams [g] and the initial temperature in degrees Celsius [°C] of the material chosen from the menu. In the prompt to the user, state the material name. For example:

• Call the function described below, sending any necessary information to the function as required by the solution. The function will return a single vector, described below.
• Write a formatted output statement to the user, similar to the final output shown below. The numerical formats and spacing should match exactly as shown.

Write a function to calculate the thermal energy in joules [J] that must be removed from the material and determine the volume of fluid needed in gallons [gal] to cool the rod to 50°C, assuming both the fluid and the rod are at this temperature at the end of the cooling process.

• All properties of glycerol given in Table B should be entered into the function, not the program.

Table B Properties of glycerol

• Perform any necessary calculations and / or conversions. Be sure to track your units!
• The function should return a 1 × 2 vector to the program, with the thermal energy required in joules [J] in the first element, and the volume required in gallons [gal] in the second element.

Sample Output