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?

If the containers are covered as the problems suggests they may be the problem is entirely impossible. In a covered container the hot water that boils off will hit the cover, condense, and return to the liquid water. This ensures that the mass of the water will not decrease as the solution calls for. I do not know whether it is possible anyhow, but with covered containers there is no way.

Posted by luke on 2003-09-13 21:53:24