Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community - View Single Post - Why does hot water freeze quicker than cold water when placed in a freezer???

zenmaster10665 · 10-15-2003, 06:30 AM

I think what saltfish's article is saying is that, during the supercooled timeperiod, the water remains in the liquid state. This is what supercooling is. According to the graph, the supercool state for hot water is much shorter than for cold water, therefore the hot water will become a solid once equilibrium has been reached at the freezing point. It is also asserted that this is assisted by dissolved gases in hotter water, as nucleation will bring any supercooled substance out of the supercooled state very quickly.

So, at the end of the day, assuming nucleation is the same in both situations (or no nucleation at all,) Hot water truly does become a solid faster.

10-15-2003, 06:30 AM	#33 (permalink)
zenmaster10665 Bokonist Location: Location, Location, Location...	I think what saltfish's article is saying is that, during the supercooled timeperiod, the water remains in the liquid state. This is what supercooling is. According to the graph, the supercool state for hot water is much shorter than for cold water, therefore the hot water will become a solid once equilibrium has been reached at the freezing point. It is also asserted that this is assisted by dissolved gases in hotter water, as nucleation will bring any supercooled substance out of the supercooled state very quickly. So, at the end of the day, assuming nucleation is the same in both situations (or no nucleation at all,) Hot water truly does become a solid faster. __________________ "Beware of the man who works hard to learn something, learns it, and finds himself no wiser than before. He is full of murderous resentment of people who are ignorant without having come by their ignorance the hard way." -Kurt Vonnegut