No hot water during a freeze
We are camping and had a freeze last night that is ongoing. We woke up this morning to all of our hot water faucets not working. Our cold water flows but not the hot water. Nothing comes out. Any th...
Forum Discussion
Lantley wrote:
I won't even bother to explain why hot water freezes faster because I don't think you would understand anyway. The idea that hot water freezes faster is a known phenomenon. It's not an idea that just came along within this thread.
It's called the Mpemba Effect. It's actually not a proven, verified experiment. If you had actually studied chemistry then you would know that.
It was a theory postulated by a 13 year old school boy in Tanzania. He witnessed an ice cream mix frost over on the top and then went on to postulate that the mix had frozen quicker than cold mix. He did not understand what he was seeing and his conclusion was based on things he didn't understand.
In controlled experiments the Mpemba Effect hasn't been replicated. All the 13 year old boy saw was a frosting of the surface and he then jumped to the conclusion, erroneously, that the mix had frozen. It had not. It was frost he had witnessed, not freezing of the mix. His theory has not been verified in controlled experiments since 1963.
But this myth keeps getting repeated by those who have no knowledge of science. It's something they read on the internet and repeat it not understanding what it is.
There - that's the simple explanation that is not complicated so you can understand what you think you know.
