Warm and Cold water, which freezes faster?

[dDave]

I am sure that all of you have been told that cold water freezes faster than warm water. The surprising truth about this is that warm water actually freezes faster than cold water. I am sure that a lot of you will argue that less energy has to be transferred to the water but, you forgot to observe all of the details. Warm water freezes faster because of the amount of oxygen in the water. This is one of those cool things that you can learn from your grandfather.

 

[Doc]

Warm water freezes faster because of the amount of oxygen in the water. This is one of those cool things that you can learn from your grandfather.

It doesn't have anything to do with the fact that warm water has more free energy to release, so it gets released faster, causing the water to freeze when the heat spills off faster? I think it also depends on the container, surface area to dissipate heat, and other variables and it isn't always 100% successful in tests.

 

[Mr_Snipes]

I am sure that all of you have been told that cold water freezes faster than warm water. The surprising truth about this is that warm water actually freezes faster than cold water. I am sure that a lot of you will argue that less energy has to be transferred to the water but, you forgot to observe all of the details. Warm water freezes faster because of the amount of oxygen in the water. This is one of those cool things that you can learn from your grandfather.

There are so many different factors that come into play on this, that it is hard to prove that this is in fact true. I am very sure that I could create experiments where I could get the warm water to freeze faster and another one to freeze the cold water faster because there are so many different variables. And because of this I could make a case for either side.

 

[Hi_Im_Tim]

Actually cold water freezes much faster, the greater amount of oxygen in warm water doesn't help it freeze faster, because it loses all of this oxygen when it gets colder. So warm water doesn't freeze faster, it freezes slower.

 

[Van]

Actually dave, heat is energy, when something is freezing, it does not gain energy, it loses it. There is also the problem of what is considered cold water, is 33 degrees what they used in these experiments, because that would freeze faster than something 34 degrees, so it depends on how large the gap in temp. is