Journal of Interdisciplinary Science Topics
Powering Disneys Frozen with a Carnot refrigerator
Aaron Goldberg
Honours Integrated Science Program, McMaster University
19/02/2014
Abstract
Frozen is Disneys latest film, in which the character Elsa unleashes winter on her entire kingdom. This paper
quantifies the amount of water frozen and the amount of work required by a Carnot refrigerator to do so,
arriving at values of
moles and
Joules, respectively.
Introduction
Frozen is a 2013 award-winning film, featuring the
Snow Queen Elsa, who has the ability to create snow
and ice from thin air. In the film, she inadvertently
freezes the fjord around the capital city Arendelle,
plunging the entire kingdom into winter [1]. The
present paper discusses the amount of energy a
Carnot refrigerator would require to cause this
freeze.
Total Amount of Water
The city of Arendelle was inspired by the Norwegian
fjord Nryfjord (Figure 1) [2].
Figure 1: A comparison between the animated city of
Arendelle, above, and Nryfjord, below [2].
Nryfjord is at least km long and m wide
[3], and so its surface area is about
m
2
.
When, in the film, the ice begins to crack, it is
apparent that about 1 m of ice is floating on top of
the water. Using the density of ice as g mL
-1
[4] and of freshwater as g mL
-1
[5], the total
volume of ice is
Assuming this density of ice, the total mass of ice is
g. With the molar mass of water
being g mol
-1
[6], this is equivalent to
moles of ice.
Isobaric Molar Heat Capacity of Water
To calculate the molar enthalpy change of freezing
this amount of water, one must first know how the
molar heat capacity of water behaves through the
associated temperature range. Heat capacity data
for water [7] and ice [8] have been tabulated in
Table 1.
Using Microsoft Excel to fit these data to a curve,
the equations for isobaric heat capacities of water
close to its melting point are
and
Powering Frozen with a Carnot Refrigerator, 19
th
February 2014
Table 1: Isobaric heat capacity versus temperature
for water and ice at 1 atm pressure:
Water
Temperature
(K)
C
p
(J mol
-1
K
-1
)
Ice
Temperature
(K)
C
p
(J mol
-1
K
-1
)
273.16 76.014 230.08 25.389
275.16 75.898 236.19 25.527
277.16 75.799 242.40 28.430
279.16 75.713 249.31 28.882
281.16 75.640 256.17 27.577
283.16 75.577 262.81 26.372
285.16 75.523 267.77 18.682
287.16 75.476
289.16 75.437
291.16 75.404
293.16 75.377
295.16 75.354
297.16 75.335
Total Enthalpy Change
Assuming the water transitioned from an ambient
to ice at , the enthalpy of reaction
follows the formula
This enthalpy is the sum of the enthalpy change in
liquid water going from to , the enthalpy
change of water at freezing into ice, and the
enthalpy change of ice going from to .
Evaluating (4) using (2), (3), and
[8] leads to
From the above result for the
total amount of water, it follows that
Using a Carnot Refrigerator
It is well known that the most efficient heat engine
is a Carnot engine, which harnesses the temperature
difference between two reservoirs to do work. This
can be done in reverse, harnessing work to drive a
temperature difference between two reservoirs, and
is known as a Carnot refrigerator. In this case, the
latter two reservoirs are the ice at , and the
air at . The coefficient of performance of the
refrigerator is the ratio of the heat flow between the
two reservoirs and the work input required for such,
and follows
By isolating for work, it can be found that the work
required is equal to the total enthalpy change
divided by the refrigerators coefficient of
performance. As such, the total mechanical work
required by a Carnot refrigerator to power the
transformation of the entire fjord from water to ice
is
Joules.
Conclusion
It has been shown that in Frozen, Elsa froze
approximately
moles of water. To
accomplish Elsas feat, a Carnot refrigerator would
require
Joules of energy. This amount is
equivalent to the energy released by the Hiroshima
nuclear bomb 115 times over, or that released by 63
Nagasaki nuclear bombs [9]. This immense number
puts Elsas power into perspective, implying either
that the Snow Queen has enormous strength, or
that Disney underestimated the ramifications of
their animated fantasy.
References
[1] Walt Disney Animation Studios, Frozen, 2013.
[2] Dawson March, C., Disney's Frozen: Inspired by Norway's beauty, The Globe and Mail (2013).
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/travel/disneys-frozen-inspired-by-norways-beauty/article15617632/
[3] Nryfjorden, Norwegian Encyclopedia (2013). http://snl.no/N%C3%A6r%C3%B8yfjorden
[4] Ginnings, D.C. and Corruccini, R.J., An Improved Ice Calorimeter the Determination of its Calibration
Factor and the Density of Ice at 0C, Journal of Research of the National Bureau of Standards 38, 583-591
(1947). http://nvlpubs.nist.gov/nistpubs/jres/38/jresv38n6p583_A1b.pdf
Powering Frozen with a Carnot Refrigerator, 19
th
February 2014
[5] Barlow, P.M., Ground Water in Freshwater-Saltwater Environments of the Atlantic Coast, U.S. Geological
Survey, 1262, 14 (2003). http://pubs.usgs.gov/circ/2003/circ1262/
[6] National Institue of Standards and Technology, Water, NIST Standard Reference Database 69: NIST
Chemistry WebBook (2011). http://webbook.nist.gov/cgi/cbook.cgi?Source=2002WAG%2FPRU387-535
[7] National Institue of Standards and Technology, Isobaric Properties for Water, NIST Standard Reference
Database 69: NIST Chemistry WebBook (2011).
http://webbook.nist.gov/cgi/fluid.cgi?P=1&TLow=270&THigh=298.15&TInc=2&Digits=5&ID=C7732185&Acti
on=Load&Type=IsoBar&TUnit=K&PUnit=atm&DUnit=mol%2Fl&HUnit=kJ%2Fmol&WUnit=m%2Fs&VisUnit=u
Pa*s&STUnit=N%2Fm&RefState=DEF
[8] Giauque, W.F. and Stout, J.W., The Entropy of Water and the Third Law of Thermodynamics. The Heat
Capacity of Ice from 15 to 273K, Journal of the American Chemical Society 58 11441150 (1936).
[9] Penney, W.G., Samuels, D.E.J., and Scorgie, G.C., The Nuclear Explosive Yields at Hiroshima and Nagasaki,
Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series A, Mathematical and Physical Sciences 266,
357-424 (1970).
