Hot Water Freezes Faster than Cold Water
Water is one of the most widely used compounds in the world. But water is also a mysterious compound. Analysis of chemical or physical properties reveals its various exceptional properties. For example, when water freezes to ice, its volume increases, whereas the opposite is true of other compounds.
As with other liquids, they become thicker as they cool. But in the case of water, the phenomenon is an exception. When it is cooled, the concentration is highest at 4 ° Celsius, and as the temperature decreases, its density decreases again. As a result, when the water freezes and turns into ice, this ice can float in the water.
In addition to such beautiful properties, many people want to know about another water feature. Many people ask, does hot water freeze faster than cold water?
If the answer is one word, then the answer would be “yes,” hot water freezes faster than cold water. But overall, in some cases, it would not be right to say yes. We will know the reason for this at the end of the discussion. Let’s find out first why hot water freezes faster than cold water.
One day in the 1960s, a Tanzanian schoolboy noticed that a mixture of hot ice cream freezes faster than ice cream. However, this phenomenon was first observed by the great sage Aristotle in the fourth century BC. The event is named after the Tanzanian student Mpemba effect. Mpemba effect is an effect where hot water freezes faster than cold water. There has been a lot of research and theories to explain this effect. One explanation is that the hot pot served as a good heat conductor in the fridge. As a result, the hot water cools very quickly by releasing heat, and ice cools faster than cold water.
Another explanation is that hot water quickly evaporates. The process of evaporation is thermostatic or endothermic. As a result, when water evaporates, it cools down quickly and helps it freeze faster. However, none of these interpretations have received sufficient acceptance. For a long time, the mystery of the Mpemba effect remained a mystery.
However, the latest explanation is that there is a strong demand for unraveling the mystery. This explanation was given by a team of physicists from Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, led by Xi Zhang. According to their research, different chemical bonds in water play a vital role in this mystery. Covalent bonds connect a large oxygen atom to two relatively small hydrogen atoms in a water molecule. But when numerous water molecules are together, hydrogen bonding plays an important role.
Hydrogen bonds are weaker than covalent bonds but stronger than Vander Wallace balls. These hydrogen bonds play a vital role in determining the properties of water. Even the boiling point of water determines why it is higher than other liquids. According to research by Xi Zhang and his team, hydrogen bonding brings water molecules very close to each other. As a result, energy is stored in this expanded covalent bond.
Interestingly, the release of this energy is the same as the cooling of water. As a result of the release of the stored energy, the water cools down quickly and freezes at the appropriate temperature. Understandably, these phenomena cannot happen so quickly in the case of cold water. The release of energy stored in covalent bonds in cold water does not occur as fast as in warm water. As a result, it freezes when kept at the right temperature but not as fast as warm water.
That is how the long-held notion that ‘hot water freezes faster than cold water is proved true.
Now let us come to the context of the answer given earlier, where you said that in some cases, it would not be right to say yes directly to the answer to today’s question. It can happen in many cases where the cold water will freeze first. For example, if hot water and cold water are kept in the container, if the mouth of both the containers is closed, then the Mpemba effect will not occur. Because in this case, evaporation of hot water will not happen.
Mpemba effect usually is actual except in some particular cases like this. It means that hot water will freeze faster than cold water.