# Time constant of ice melt

I'm familiar with problems of "how much ice can you melt given some amount of energy", but I'm writing to get some clarification on the time constant of this event. This question might be somewhat related to How long does it take an iceberg to melt in the ocean? but I will try to ask it in a simpler form.

I have $1 kg$ of water at $0.5^{\circ}$ that is in contact with ice. $0.5^{\circ}$ water has $2 \cdot 10^3 J$ relative to $0^{\circ}$ water. If the latent heat of ice is $3.34 \cdot 10^5 J/kg$, the water can melt $0.006 kg$ of ice.

What I'm trying to figure out now is how long that takes. If the water is in contact with the ice for 10 seconds, is 100% of the energy used up in the heat transfer process, or is some of the energy in the water advected away, unused, after 10 seconds.

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Hi phisiksquestioner. Welcome to Phys.SE. If you haven't already done so, please take a minute to read the definition of when to use the homework tag, and the Phys.SE policy for homework-like problems. –  Qmechanic Apr 23 '13 at 22:10