Question: Newton's law of cooling Newton's law of cooling can be used to estimate time of death. (Actually the estimate may be quite rough, because cooling does not begin until metabolic processes have ceased.) Suppose a corpse is discovered at noon in a 70°F room, and at that time the body temperature is 96.1°F. If at 1;00 p.m. the body temperature is 94.6°F, use Newton's law of cooling to estimate the time of death.