• Question: Hi Tim, I was one of the RSSKL students who had an online chat with you all yesterday. Thanks for all your answers! I noticed there was a particular debate which you got involved in concerning water freezing, and there was some confusion among some of the others in my class whether the phenomenon of boiling water freezing more quickly than water at room temperature actually exists. Is the confusion perhaps surrounding the phrase 'more quickly'? Does this in fact refer to the rate of freezing rather than the total time taken?

    Asked by sambuckton to Tim on 15 Nov 2013.
    • Photo: Tim Hollowood

      Tim Hollowood answered on 15 Nov 2013:

      I took you to mean the total time taken. So if you take 2 beakers of water one at say 1 degree and the other boiling so near 100 degrees and put them in a freezer the one at 1 degree will freeze first. That’s simple physics.
      In the 2nd case the beaker first has to cool down from 100 to 0 and that takes time than 1 to 0. Then when both beakers are at 0 degrees the freezing time is the same.

Comments