In a message dated 12/14/2005 5:07:15 PM Pacific Standard Time,
ridecamp-digest@xxxxxxxxxxxxx writes:
II
History of the Mpemba Effect The fact that hot water freezes faster than
cold has been known for many centuries. The earliest reference
to this phenomenon dates back to Aristotle in 300 B.C. The
phenomenon was later discussed in the medieval era, as European
physicists struggled to come up with a theory of heat. But by the
20th century the phenomenon was only known as common folklore, until
it was reintroduced to the scientific community in 1969 by Mpemba, a
Tanzanian high school student. Since then, numerous
experiments have confirmed the existence of the "Mpemba effect", but
have not settled on any single explanation. Interesting, eh?
:) Sylvia
I've never heard of this but I only skated through
Chemistry, but I remember our professor explaining that with hot water the
little Hydrogen and Oxygen particles are moving around faster and are able to
hook up together faster into the ice crystal formations found in ice. (Can
you tell I barely squeaked through chemistry!)
