Comments on: Something Cool You May Not Know About Water

By: Darryl

Darryl — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 22:29:47 +0000

Some recent research on this phenomenon:

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/03/icy-hot/

By: Mike

Mike — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 15:06:56 +0000

FRANK also called you trekkies when you’re discussing star wars, which just goes to show exactly how little attention he was paying. I did not know that warm water froze quicker … have you done any experiments to see if it continues up the scale (i.e. does 80C water freeze quicker than 60C water and so on down), or if there’s an optimal temperature at which to put water in an ice cube tray? I’m thinking this could be very useful information for any spontaneous drinkies that might occur in a household short on ice cubes …

By: John Conners

John Conners — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 16:12:39 +0000

I’m afraid not Emma, the mystery deepens!

By: Emma

Emma — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 13:50:43 +0000

Ha ha ha, still no nearer then? : )

By: John Conners

John Conners — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 20:18:18 +0000

I’m sure I used to know what that means but it sounds about right! (Old age must be catching up with me).

By: daz

daz — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 19:39:23 +0000

its all to do with the specific latent heat capacity.

By: John Conners

John Conners — Sun, 28 Dec 2008 21:06:55 +0000

First of all, THERE’S NO NEED TO SHOUT!

Secondly, you’re not clear if you’re agreeing with or disagreeing with the fact (and it is a fact) that 35ºC water freezes faster than water at 5ºC. While the 5ºC water reaches 0ºC faster than the water at 35ºC (obviously), it’s the initially-warmer water that solidifies first and you can try it under laboratory conditions yourself to confirm that’s the case. The rate at which the water cools until it hits 0ºC is generally uniform, it’s when it hits the magic 0 that things go strange. Not sure what the relevance is to booster rockets – I’ll leave that to the experts!

By: FRANK

FRANK — Sun, 28 Dec 2008 20:13:17 +0000

UUMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM, TREKIES……..THE TEMPERATURE FALLING IS NOT LIKE A HIGH JUMP, WHERE A GOOD RUNNING START HAS INERTIA TO CARRY YOU OVER THE TOP. FAST HEAT LOSS INITIALLY WILL SLOW TO SAME RATE OF THE OTHER WATER WHEN IT REACHES THAT TEMPERATURE….DON’T APPLY YOUR PHYSICS TO YOUR BOOSTER ROCKETS EITHER.

By: John Conners

John Conners — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 18:55:21 +0000

I did have an R2-D2, but it was an airfix model that was about a foot high if I remember correctly! I had more figures but looking at them they really were almost exclusively the bad guys. I didn’t even have a wookie!

By: John Topley

John Topley — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 18:40:15 +0000

I believe I had all those figures apart from the Tuscan Raider (#2) and Luke (#5). And where’s your R2D2?!