Frodo, along with his trusty companion Samwise, has taken the ring of power to Mount Doom, in order to throw it into the lava and destroy it, thus preventing darkness from taking over Middle- Earth...

Frodo, along with his trusty companion Samwise, has taken the ring of power to Mount Doom, in order to throw it into the lava and destroy it, thus preventing darkness from taking over Middle- Earth (certainly a worthwhile endeavor). The lava is 2000°F, and the outside temperature is 70°F, as is the temperature of the ring. After Frodo throws the ring into the lava (well, actually Gollum falls into the lava with the ring, after struggling with Frodo), in ten minutes the temperature has risen twenty degrees The melting point of gold is approximately 1950°F. How long wi it take for the ring to melt? (Gandalf has assured us that Newton's law of cooling holds here, after he took a quick trip to the future to check it out.) The numbers given are for purposes of this problem, and not necessarily realistic.