does warm water really freeze faster than cold water? and if so, why?

Answer 1

There does not seem to be a hard theory as to why, but this 'wives tale' does hold up under experimentation.

Answer 2

No it does not. The hotter something is, the faster the temperature will drop but due to Newton's Law of cooling, if you took a 80F pan of water and a 100F pan of water off the stove at the same time, the 100F pan will drop in temperature faster than the 80F pan but when the 100F pan reaches 80F it's change in temperature will be the same as the change in temperature of the original 80F pan when it was taken off the stove..all other things being equal.

Warm water will typically freeze clearer than cold water though, because there is less gas dissolved in it.

Answer 3

There were actually a number of experiments done on this, and they all came up unconclusive. Sometimes warm water froze faster, and sometimes cold water did.

Answer 4

no, thats absurd.warm water cools quicker than cold water, but as soon as they reach the same temperature, the warm water isn't warmer anymore, now, is it

Answer 5

It is possible, but it takes a situation where Newton's law of cooling doesn't apply. Here's a link to some discussion of this:

http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/physics/General/hot_water.html

There are several possibilities on why it happens, including evaporation, convection, dissolved gasses, and surroundings.

Answer 6

i have no clue, i hate science