[Math] Differential equation word problem

ordinary differential equations

I'm doing a set of computer science programming questions and this was one, though I think it's simply solvable with differential equations, but I'm not too good with them. Any help?

Mr. Chickenorfish prepares a cup of coffee, then promptly forgets about it. Initially, the coffee is at $210$ F. Fifteen minutes later, the coffee is at $190$ F. If room temperature is $72$ F, when will the coffee be at $150$ F?

Best Answer

You need a model for how the temperature decreases. I will guess that the heat loss is proportional to the temperature difference between the coffee and room temperature. Let the coffee temperature be $T$. My model says $\frac {dT}{dt}=k(T-72)$ and $T(0)=210, T(15)=190$. You need to solve the differential equation, use the two pieces of data to evaluate $k$ and the integration constant, then find the time when $T=150$