What does the air temperature need to be to freeze a bucket or bowl of water if thrown into the air?

Question

I'm sure I've heard this can happen but maybe its just a myth. If the bowl of water has been boiled and is still warm or hot, does this make a difference?

Answer 1

To fully answer this thermodynamics question, we need to know the volume of water, the beginning temperature of the water, how much the water is atomized when thrown into the air, and the time the water is in the air.

We can easily figure out the volume of water as well as the beginning temperature of the water and the time it will be in the air. But the amount of the atomization is difficult.

It takes 80 Calories per gram of water just to change state from liquid to solid... and that's if you start with liquid water that is 0 degrees Celsius. Because of heat transfer and surface area (surface-to-volume ratio), a solid ball of water will remain liquid much longer than if the water were evenly distributed into tiny water droplets (atomized).

You may have seen snow making machines at the slopes of ski resorts. The snow making machines are nothing more than nozzles that spray tiny droplets of chilled water high into the air. But that is nothing like throwing a bucket of water.

Answer 2

Certainly it would matter whether you threw the water off a cliff or over your left shoulder onto the ground. Also it would depend on how cold out it is (your question). You must remove one calorie to reduce the temperature of a gram of water one degree but you must remove 80 calories to change a gram of water at the freezing point to ice. Therefore if you start with water 10 degrees above freezing you must also remove about 10 calories to reach freezing before even forming any ice. If the water is finely divided (atomized) and comes in contact with enough air cold enough to remove the excess heat it will freeze. However, if the water remains a slug of liquid it is unlikely it will have enough surface area to exchange much heat while airborne even with very cold air. Hope that helps a little.

Answer 3

I'm not sure about this particular amount of water but just the other day at the bus stop myy friend poureed water on the ground. It froze in about 90 seconds~Monicurl