Question: Refrigerator Cooling

[Kristin Ishaya 1A]

I was wondering, when you open a refrigerator in a closed room, why doesn’t the room become colder? Why does it become warmer? Shouldn’t the cold air leave the refrigerator and cool the surroundings according to the laws of entropy?

[Julian Krzysiak 2K]

I think it's only because the surroundings in this case are so much more larger and have much more volume as compared to the refrigerator and what it produces. To cool the whole room down would require a large amount of energy, which would be theoretically possible if the refrigerator were large enough. So yes, technically the refrigerator does cool the room, but only by about ~.000001%. The cool air is so spread out compared to the room's air it won't have much of an effect.

[Hannah Chew 2A]

Similar is the example Dr. Lavelle used in class. If you light a match in a large room, why doesn't the temperature increase? There is no significant increase because the heat of the match is too small to affect the entire room.

[Sarah 2F]

The fridge is a small part of the room and thus the temperature of the fridge does not necessarily affect the temperature of the whole room. Like the person above: lighting a match does not make the whole surrounding warmer.