Why does hot water freeze faster than cold water?

Monday, 9. July 2012 - 10:55

It seems a simple enough question - yet it has baffled the best brains for at least 2,300 years.

Now Hermes 2012 has joined forces with the Royal Society of Chemistry to offer £1000 to the person or team producing the best and most creative explanation of the phenomenon, known today as The Mpemba Effect.
The deadline for public entries is 30 July, because hard on the public's heels will be a bunch of the world's acutest postgraduate scientists who, sponsored by the Royal Society of Chemistry, will be attacking the same problem while locked in a posh hotel in Windsor Great Park during the first week of the Olympic Games.

The 60 brains are part of Hermes 2012, a project to harvest some of the brightest talent from around the globe: a cerebral Olympian gathering, one might say. They will be in Windsor to compete against each other in the project, run with input from the four major London Universities, working under the umbrellas of the Thomas Young Centre and the Centre for Doctoral Training in Theory and Simulation of Materials.

Any medium or technology can be employed to make the case, including articles, illustrations or even film. Submissions can be based on, and reference, existing research. The winning submission will be scientifically sound, and arresting in presentation and delivery. The judges' decision will be final.

http://www.hermes2012.org/ice/

Tags:

Mpemba Effect