Mpemba Effect Demystified

Abstract

The Mpemba Effect (ME) is known as the counter intuitive effect of faster freezing of a beaker of warm water than the same but colder sample, under apparently same conditions (e.g. in the freezer, Aristotle will have done it outdoor). The astonishment about this misled all the investigations and explanations intuitively into looking for water/ice/solidification properties, and the key, the heat transfer, was not adequately taken into account. If we trust classical physics and energy conservation, faster freezing of water must be primarily associated with a greater heat flow, not with mystical water properties or behavior. It is shown that the trivial conductivity through the bottom of the beaker adequately explains the ME.