Does hot water freeze faster than cold water?

Diving into Heat and The Mpemba Effect

Have you ever thought about how a simple observation can shake up established scientific ideas? The Mpemba effect, named after Tanzanian student Erasto Mpemba, does just that. It shows that hot water can freeze faster than cold water in certain conditions.

Why is this important? Because it makes us question and explore the basics of thermodynamics and phase changes. In this blog, we’ll look into how Mpemba discovered this surprising effect, the scientific studies that followed, and the different theories trying to explain it.

The Mpemba effect is the idea that hot water can freeze faster than cold water under certain conditions. Mpemba discovered this in the 1960s when he noticed his hot mix of boiled milk and sugar froze faster than his classmates' cold mixes in a shared fridge. This observation caught the attention of physicist Denis Osborne, who worked with Mpemba to test and confirm the effect.

Notice how the red curve(hot water) overtakes the blue curve(cold water). Image taken from