Supercooled water

[xotoxi]

Last night, I realized that I had forgotten to change the water bottle on our water cooler, and that the other bottles were on the porch.

Since it is well below zero up here in Maine, I was sure they would be frozen solid. However, much to my surprise, they were still liquid.

So, I tipped over one of the 5 gallon bottles and carried it in, only to find that it had crystalized into ice after I'd flipped it.

I tried it with the other 3 bottles and it was pretty impressive to watch.

Here are some youtube videos that shows supercooled water freezing.

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jouKXytWD8g[/ame]

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DpiUZI_3o8s[/ame]

 

[California Girl]

That's pretty cool!

 

[L.K.Eder]

this can also happen when you forget beer in the freezer, it is still liquid, but soon after you open it a steady flow of slush escapes the bottle. i don't recommend it.

 

[jillian]

That's cool... my son wants to do it for his next science fair project.

 

[Zoom-boing]

Neat-o mosquit-o!

 

[Midnight Marauder]

The super-HEATED water is much more fun! Looks fine until you touch it, then BOOM!

 

[xotoxi]

The super-HEATED water is much more fun! Looks fine until you touch it, then BOOM!

It may be more fun to see, but probably not to drink.

 

[AVG-JOE]

Bottled Beer does the same thing - put one in the freezer for just the right amount of time and it's still liquid when you open it up, but then frozen beer starts pushing out in fairly tasty chunks and the whole bottle crystalizes pretty quickly.

 

[Old Rocks]

Last night, I realized that I had forgotten to change the water bottle on our water cooler, and that the other bottles were on the porch.

Since it is well below zero up here in Maine, I was sure they would be frozen solid. However, much to my surprise, they were still liquid.

So, I tipped over one of the 5 gallon bottles and carried it in, only to find that it had crystalized into ice after I'd flipped it.

I tried it with the other 3 bottles and it was pretty impressive to watch.

Here are some youtube videos that shows supercooled water freezing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jouKXytWD8g

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DpiUZI_3o8s

Neat. When I move back home, I will have to see if I can duplicate this.

 

[Mr. H.]

There's got to be some kind of exponential chain-reaction transfer of energy going on here.

If only you could bottle it and sell it...

 

[dilloduck]

That's really what is happening at the poles-----it's so damn cold that the water refuses to crytalize.