3 ms·
Controversy Continues over Whether Hot Water Freezes Faster Than Cold
- hilbert42 4y agoIt seems to me that determining whether the Mpemba effect in water actually occurs or not for certain ought to be a high priority for physics. If confirmed beyond doubt it means that there's underlying physics we don't yet fully understand (also solving the water case would likely fully explain its role in other substances). As far as I recall methane is a clathrate hydrate and there are millions of tons of it under the oceans. It's perhaps possible the Mpemba effect has an effect on the formation and quantity of this hydrate. Given its importance in the climate debate then quantifying the details might end up being important. Edit: I've subsequently read the article's link to the clathrate hydrate research paper's abstract (unfortunately, the full paper is behind a paywall). I noticed this comment in the abstract that I reckon is pretty insightful: '...Moreover, we observed that the O: H stretching phonons of water in the THF hydrate showed a blue shift, and the O-H stretching mode showed a redshift as temperature decreased. Both the rate of heat emission and the Raman shift of these two bonds imply that a cooperative relationship between the covalent bond and the hydrogen bond exists in THF hydrate as pure water. ...'