system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
If I wanted to refrigerate 1 litre of water to 5 degrees celsius, would it be faster to place 500ml into 2 bottles (in the same fridge) as opposed to 1 litre in 1 bottle?
gpt
The heat transfer rate is determining how fast you transfer the heat from the liquid inside the bottle to the colder outside and thus cool the liquid inside. The heat transfer rate is proportional to the surface area of the interface between the cold and warm volumes.

Two smaller bottles (or two half filled 1L bottles) have a larger surface area than one 1L bottle, so the water split between two bottles would be chilled faster.