Why a bottled water put in the refrigrator gets really cold but remains liquid until you take it out?

Question

When you take the bottlee out of the refrigerator and shake it few times the water inside the bottle freezes. Please explain.

Answer 1

Have you heard of boiling and freezing points. Each substance has a boiling and a freezing point there is a different one for each substance. The freezing point of H20 (hydrogen and oxygen) is 32 degrees Fahrenheit and the boiling point is 212 degrees Fahrenheit. Now these temperatures could be different if the water has anything else in it changing the molecular structure. Things like salt, calcium, ect. So in your bottle story....The gas (common air) which has things like helium, carbon and oxygen is on top and your water is on the bottom. This could get confusing but essentially when you shake it up you added other molecules into the water that have a lower or higher freezing point. Same idea as when you have a partially frozen bottle of water and you shake it up and it defrosts. It also has to do with the first law of thermodynamics...Energy can not be created or destroyed just transferred. So some molecules do not have enough energy to bond with one another but when you shake up the bottle it transfers energy allowing them to bond with one another. Hope I didn't confuse you too much.

Answer 2

You can cool very clean water down to minus 40 degrees before it freezes, if you're careful. But if there's even a tiny speck of dust or bubble in it, it will freeze at 0 degrees celsius. When you take the supercooled water (water that's still liquid but colder than 0 degrees) out of the fridge and it warms up, some dissolved air comes out of solution. Tiny bubbles form for the ice crystals to start growing on.

Answer 3

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supercooled

I did once take a pitcher of water out of the frig. pour into a plastic cup, and dump in a spoonful of Coolaid. When the power hit the water it all turned to slush.
That was 20 years ago and I have never seen it happen again.

There is a SF book in which this phenomena is used to kill off a rich guy. Takes place on the moon, rich guy has a swimming pool and takes a dip every morning, killer programs the temperature control to slowly cool the water over night and do to very pure water low gravity etc., it super cools and when the rich guy dives in it freezes solid around him.

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Andre' B.

Answer 4

i've had this happen to me with a refrigator in my college dorm two years ago, my roommate and i thought it was the weirdest thing ever. we talked to our chemistry professors and none of them could really come up with a straight answer. as far as i know its almost like super cooling a liquid.

the one thing i could think of was maybe the water was almost as pure as distilled water so it just continually got colder without freezing. once it was aggitated the freezing process was allowed to take place. for example, if you take distilled water and heat it in the microwave, no matter how long you have it on for it will never boil. not to say that the water isn't at a boiling temperate. it is possible to superheat distilled water in a microwave. once any sort of impurity gets into the water, it will react furiously like throwing water into hot oil. it will pretty much throw boiling hot, or even hotter, water every place. perhaps the reverse happened in the fridge with bottled water. let me know if you hear anything that sounds really true and from a reputable source.

P.S.- DO NOT TRY TO HEAT DISTILLED WATER IN A MICROWAVE, YOU WILL SUFFER SERIOUS BURNS. IF YOU REALLY WANT TO SEE WHAT HAPPENS, WATCH THE MYTHBUSTERS, THEY COVERED IT.

Answer 5

the water is very close to the freezing line. Ice crystals have not been able to form but shaking the water put just enough energy into the water to force the formation of ice crystals.

Answer 6

Your refridgerator must be incredibly cold. It's probably not shaking it a few times, it's probably opening the bottle that makes it freeze. When you open the bottle it releases the pressure. Things at lower pressure freeze at lower temperatures.

Answer 7

i dont really know. One time i put a bottle of gaterade in the freezer the next day i noticed it was still liquid, so i open it as soon as i open it i remember seeing the liquid started to solidify within my eyes from top to bottom, how is that possibe i dont know i just remember that happened after i saw this question. Any answers?

Answer 8

A thermos is a gadget that ensures a relentless temperature interior it. because of the fact we are actually not in a position to construct a suitable one its habit relies upon on the kind between the outdoors temperature T(O) and the interior one T(i) and on the placing apart homes of its partitions. If T(0)>T(i) then power flows from outdoors to interior and if T(i)>T(O) the circulate of power differences its sign. the linked fee of power circulate contained in direction of the partitions of the thermos is ruled by ability of the regulation dQ=(bA/d)dT the place dQ is the circulate of power trough the partitions of the thermos, A the touch floor between the interior and the outdoors of the thermos, d the thickness of the partitions and b a warmth conduction coefficient which relies upon on the cloth from which the partitions are made. The presence of the vaccum between the wals ensures a low fee of b.

Answer 9

This is a very unlikely phenomenon to occur in a domestic fridge - I am sure you are making it up.

However, it is possible to supercool a fluid - ie get it below its freezing point without it going through a phase transition. Mechanical distrubances to s supercooled fluid cause rapid freezing.

Answer 10

are you sure you have water? I have never seen anything like that before.