Hot water freezes faster than cold
it sounds bonkers, but this strange phenomenon has baffled scientists for ages
You'd bet your life that a cup of cold water freezes…
Gut call — how extreme does this actually get?
Reality tends to overshoot. Pick your ceiling.
- it sounds bonkers, but this strange phenomenon has baffled scientists for ages
- There is also the 'frost' factor.
- Surprisingly, this effect doesn't happen every time, and the exact temperature 'sweet spot' is still a matter of heated debate in laboratories.
If you put a cup of boiling water and a cup of cold water in the freezer, the boiling one will often turn to ice first. This glitch in physics is known as the Mpemba Effect.
Aristotle noticed it thousands of years ago, but modern science still hasn't fully agreed on why it happens. One leading theory involves evaporation; because the hot water is steaming, it loses mass, leaving less water behind to freeze.
Another factor is convection. The hot water moves more violently within the cup, transferring its heat to the freezer’s air much faster than the stagnant cold water.
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