RSC offers £1000 for explanation of an unsolved legendary phenomenon

Royal Society of Chemistry ^ | 26 June 2012 | NA

[neverdem]

Why does hot water freeze faster than cold water?

It seems a simple enough question - yet it has baffled the best brains for at least 2,300 years.

• Aristotle agonized over it fruitlessly in the fourth century BC
• Roger Bacon in the 13th century used it to advocate the scientific method in his book Opus Majus 
• Another Bacon, Francis, wrote in his 1620 Novum Organum, that "slightly tepid water freezes more easily than that which is utterly cold" but could not explain why
• Descartes was defeated by it in the 18th century AD
• Even perplexed 20th and 21st century scientists and intellectuals have swarmed over it without result   

Now the Royal Society of Chemistry is offering £1000 to the person or team producing the best and most creative explanation of the phenomenon, known today as The Mpemba Effect.

Competition judges will be looking for an outside-the-box, inventive submission. In addition, the format of the submission should be creative and eye-catching.

Any medium or technology can be employed to make the case, including articles, illustrations or even film.

Submissions can be based on, and reference, existing research. The winning submission will be scientifically sound, and arresting in presentation and delivery.

The public has four weeks to crack the case before a group of the world's brightest young science brains take on the challenge in London as one aspect of a special science communications meeting entitled Hermes 2012.

Fittingly, that group's bid for glory will be made in the first week of the Olympics. The sharpest international postgraduate science students will travel to England from around the globe to participate in the Hermes 2012 event.

The Royal Society of Chemistry is sponsoring this visit to the UK of the hand-picked young scientists, who will gather at Cumberland Lodge in Windsor Great Park...

[MHGinTN]

Oh yeah, typical, blame Heisenberg again. He’s the reason Schoedinger’s cat ran away too I suppose!

[Chainmail]

Actually I can see why it's confusing - the secret is the way water works: things that are less dense than water are pushed upward by the pressure water exerts on a body.

Ice floats because it is expanded water, so a block of ice is less dense than the same volume of water. No matter how many holes you drill in ice (or wood or cork or other materials less dense than water) it will float.

Concrete canoes are very thin-walled boats that have a large interior volume of air - so they are overall less dense than the water they displace. If you bore a hole and replace the air with water, it will be overall more dense than the water and it will sink.

You will note that it was the Titanic that sank not the iceberg in that collision a century ago..The Titanic replaced its volume of air with water and the iceberg was still ice.

[panaxanax]

It all makes sense now, thank you. I sincerely hope you didn’t think I was being argumentative.

Thanks again for your patience.

[Chainmail]

"hope you didn’t think I was being argumentative."

Didn't think any such thing. I can easily understand how it might be confusing. I had the good fortune to be forced to learn about all this stuff when I was an engineering student.

You should have seen all the trouble I had with physics...(and calculus and strength of materials...etc.)

[UCANSEE2]

Actually, it’s because Cold is attracted to Hot (opposites attract, remember?). The hotter it is, the more cold is attracted to it, causing it to ‘freeze’ first.

(/s) : )

[UCANSEE2]

“Aristotle agonized over it fruitlessly in the fourth century BC”

Oh yeah? Where the heck did he get ICE CUBES or even ICE CUBE TRAYS , or even a Freezer ? And was it a Frigidaire or Amana ?