I didn't understand that comment... was he insinuating physicists don't know thermodynamics? The original question is pretty basic.

I think he was saying that although physicists generally understand the principles involved, a chemist might have a better sense of the relative magnitudes of the different effects that come into play in cooling a solution, since chemists have to perform this task routinely.

I suppose, but any physicist worth anything should be able to remember enough high school chemistry to deduce the answer.

Fluid dynamics aren't exactly high school chemistry...