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#1
27th June 2012, 04:56 PM
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Show your "smarts"
Why does hot water freeze faster than cold water?
Reckon you know the answer to this question, which has baffled the likes of Aristotle, Bacon and Descartes? Well... The Royal Society of Chemistry (UK) is offering £1000 to the person or team producing the best and most creative explanation of the phenomenon, known today as The Mpemba Effect. You have four weeks.  http://www.rsc.org/AboutUs/News/Pres...er-ice-hot.asp
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...... I have no problem sharing a common ancestor with the apes; it's being related to some people that bothers me. - Ms Volts I'm not a scientist, I'm what you might call an informal cheerleader. - Bill Bryson 
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#2
27th June 2012, 05:49 PM
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Re: Show your "smarts"
I want to see someone do the experiments with pure water, to rule out impurities.
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#3
27th June 2012, 06:20 PM
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Re: Show your "smarts"
Hot water has less dissolved gas and therefore fewer nucleation sites to initiate ice formation. Because of this ice begins to form earlier at the surface of the initially cold water and acts as an insulator. When the initially hot water freezes it tends to freeze throughout and not initially just at the surface.
Turns out this question really hasn't baffled physicists for a very long time, though it is topical as it's been all over the web for about the last week. Strangely, I can find no reference to this purported prize on the website of The Royal Society for Chemistry. Funny that. Why would a chemistry society be sponsoring a prize for work in physics? What has phase change to do with chemistry?
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"Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away."Philip K. Dick
Last edited by Loki; 27th June 2012 at 06:22 PM.
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