Does Warm Water Freeze Faster than Cold Water?
We think that the warm water clears the windscreen faster and keeps the windscreen clear of ice for longer than cold water. This may be a common sense approach, but it was Albert Einstein who once said, “Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age 18”. As with so many other things, Einstein was proved right as, although the phenomenon was described by ancient scholars, it only became known to the modern scientific community through the enquiring mind of a 15-year-old Tanzanian schoolboy. That hot water freezes at a faster rate than cold water cannot be disputed. Fill two identical containers with the same amount of water and place them in a freezer. The container filled with the warmer water will freeze first. The difficulty is in explaining why the warmer water freezes first. Ice cream The phenomenon had been identified by Aristotle in 300 BC and confirmation followed from Marliani in 1461, Bacon and Descartes in the 1620s. The story continues in a Tanzanian High Scho
