2. The temperature of a body approaches the ambient temperature T
exponentially. The temperature of the body changes rapidly at the
beginning, but rather slowly later on. A large value of b indicates that
the body will approach the environment temperature in a short time.
The larger the value of the exponent b, the higher the rate of decay in
temperature. Note that b is proportional to the surface area, but inversely
proportional to the mass and the specific heat of the body. This is not
surprising since it takes longer to heat or cool a larger mass, especially
when it has a large specific heat.