Why do some water bottles freeze and some don't?

Question

I keep my packaged water bottles in my garage, and my garage is pretty cold this time of year...down into the teens and possible single digits (Fahrenheit) at night. In the package some of the bottles are frozen solid and some don't freeze at all. Why does this happen?

Answer 1

I think De Deuce has the right answer. But there might be even more to it: in order to go from liquid to solid, water has to give away energy in form of heat. As the outer row of bottles freeze, maybe they are giving enough heat to keep the inner ones liquid.
The fact that it gives heat is the reason e.g. clouds are still droplets of water even under freezing point. Those droplets are so small that they have virtually no mass so to speak and can't dissipate the heat. When it then meets a dust corn it freezes and starts the process of making snowflakes. Or worse, when it meets the leading edge of my aircraft, it turns instantly into ice. Flying only a short time in such conditions is enough to cover the leading edge of the wings and the propeller with ice thick enough to bring the plane down. Bigger aircraft such as airliner have, of course, de-icing devices.

Answer 2

Water as a vloume has heat in it from the air.
When you have SEPARATE containers but in close proximity to each other, the bottles on the outside of the collection (closer to the falling ambient air trmpreture) will give up thier heat first, followed by the inner cluster of bottles.

Left out in the cold air LONG enough and all of the bottles will freeze.

Answer 3

try replacing the bottles with the vodka with water, that ought to do the trick for ya.