retired1 wrote:I had not read the ice bit very closely as I was still hung up on the large opening.
The advantage of adding ice water is you lower the temp of the water in the beaker, so it does not loose as much heat (differential temperatures). I will have to look at the points gained by adding it vs not adding it. If your beaker water is close to the same temp as the air around it, you will have a very very low heat transfer to any of the three methods.
With this in mind, and the fact that it's easier to keep something warm, warm vs keeping something hot, hot, wouldn't it be more beneficial point wise in the heat retention portion to add the ice water, assuming you could predict the final temperature fairly accurately?