Mpemba effect

The Mpemba effect, named after Erasto Batholomeo Mpemba (b.1950) in 1963, is the observation that, in some circumstances, warmer water can freeze faster than colder water. Although there is some conflicting published support for the effect, there is disagreement on exactly what the effect is and under what circumstances it occurs. There have been reports of similar phenomena since ancient times, although with insufficient detail for the claims to be replicated. A number of possible explanations for the effect have been proposed.

The phenomenon, when taken to mean "hot water freezes faster than cold", is difficult to reproduce or confirm because this statement is ill-defined. Monwhea Jeng proposes as a more precise wording:

There exists a set of initial parameters, and a pair of temperatures, such that given two bodies of water identical in these parameters, and differing only in initial uniform temperatures, the hot one will freeze sooner.

However, even with this definition it is not clear whether "freezing" refers to the point at which water forms a visible surface layer of ice; the point at which the entire volume of water becomes a solid block of ice; or when the water reaches 0 °C (32 °F). A quantity of water can be at 0 °C (32 °F) and not be ice; after enough heat has been removed to reach 0 °C (32 °F) more heat must be removed before the water changes to solid state (ice), so water can be liquid or solid at 0 °C (32 °F).

With the above definition there are simple ways in which the effect might be observed: For example, if the hotter temperature melts the frost on a cooling surface and thus increases the thermal conductivity between the cooling surface and the water container. On the other hand, there may be many circumstances in which the effect is not observed.

Various effects of heat on the freezing of water were described by ancient scientists such as Aristotle: "The fact that the water has previously been warmed contributes to its freezing quickly: for so it cools sooner. Hence many people, when they want to cool water quickly, begin by putting it in the sun. So the inhabitants of Pontus when they encamp on the ice to fish (they cut a hole in the ice and then fish) pour warm water round their reeds that it may freeze the quicker, for they use the ice like lead to fix the reeds." Aristotle's explanation involved antiperistasis, "the supposed increase in the intensity of a quality as a result of being surrounded by its contrary quality."

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