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In violation of Thermodynamics (Posted on 2003-05-11) Difficulty: 2 of 5
Many have heard the "old wives tale" stating that if you put hot water into a freezer, it freezes in less time than it would have if it had been cold to start. Never did I believe such a claim, as it runs contrary to one of the basic laws of nature.

While surfing one day on sites illustrating "bad science" I actually found a plausible real life reason why this in fact can be true (read:not always true, but possible). Running this experiment under controlled conditions [eg. measure the same volumes of hot and cold water, make sure containers are equal in any relevant aspect (shape, material, conductance properties, covered or not etc.), and that the freezer is properly set to achieve a uniform temperature throughout], can you come up with a reasonable set of conditions for which the water in the hot container would freeze before the water in the cold container?

See The Solution Submitted by Cory Taylor    
Rating: 3.1429 (7 votes)

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literary solution | Comment 9 of 18 |
I'm a literary person, so my solution is a play on words.

Note the exact phrasing: the water in the hot container would freeze before the water in the cold container.

More specifically, "hot CONTAINER" and "cold CONTAINER"

Thus, you could put boiling water in a cold container and near-frozen water in a warmed container and still satisfy the exact wording of the problem.
  Posted by banerd on 2003-08-01 16:29:29
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